Character Does It Count?

Many schools in the United States have a adopted a program called "Character Counts". The CHARACTER COUNTS! approach to character education doesn't exclude anyone. There are six pillars taught in the Character Counts program; Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship.

I want to talk about RESPECT. This what the Character Counts program says about Respect;

Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule • Be tolerant of differences • Use good manners, not bad language • Be considerate of the feelings of others • Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone • Deal peacefully with anger, insults and disagreements

Recently I have been thinking a lot about respect and what does that really mean. I grew up in the Southern United States and was taught to treat people older than me and those in a higher position than me with respect. Lately I have been bothered by the way young people and even people friends of mine treat family their parents, co-works, and bosses. There is a term I hear people use more and more that I find offensive "parental units". I when I hear "unit" I think of a thing or an object. If I had ever called my mom and dad parental units my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap, that is if I was still living at home. If I was over 18 my dad would have said hit the road if you are not going to treat us with respect it is time to move out.

I even have friends that call their parents by their first name and yes these are the biological parents not step-parents. I was shocked the first time I heard that happen. Again I do realize part of this is my Southern up bringing were you would often call the adults of your parents close friend Aunt ____ and Uncle ____ instead of the more formal Mr. & Mrs. but you would never use just the first name. Depending on the age of the person and how close they were to the family you might call them Mrs. ______ using the first name but you would always put Mr. or Mrs. in front of the name.

I have a couple of friends that still live at home that are always complaining about their parents. In many countries extended families live together and in parts of the US this same practice is common. But if all you are going to do is complain about you parents and how hard it is to live with them because mom or dad is so hard to deal with well them maybe you ask yourself why is that you are living there? Is it time to move and find a place of your own? If you are staying so some respect to your folks because one day they will be gone and you don't want to regret treating them bad.

Going back to what Character Counts says it's following the Golden Rule, treat others they way you want to be treated. I don't have children but if I did I would be very offended if they called me a parental unit. So I would never use the term. I will always call some one older than me or in a position of higher authority by their proper title just as I would want to bee refereed to in the work place.