R-E-S-P-E-C-T

A friend donated a P6 curriculum from a really cool US program called Pathways to Character. The program intertwines academic content, like math and English, with concepts like respect, sharing, family, tolerance. Couple of weeks ago, we used one of their lessons on "respect".

The lesson plan had us find a passage from literature where there was conflict. I took a scene from the first chapter of  Lord of the Flies. I read out the conversation between Piggy and Ralph where Ralph is crushingly patronising and rude to Piggy.

The kids made a hand puppet from a paper bag, and I put a jar of marbles on the table. Every time any of the characters said a disrepectful word the kids dropped a marble into the bag. After a couple of  minutes the bags had about 8 or 9 marbles. Noisy bag.

Then, we explained that when you're disrespectful or use disrespectful words, people hear only the disrespectful stuff  - the noise - and disregard the rest.
And that you have to respect yourself as well as others.

And we started to mindmap what respect means.

The volunteers didn't find it so easy to explain respect - especially self-respect. And while the kids could tell us what it means to SHOW respect - be attentive in class, greet people etc - they didn't know how or why they had to apply it in real-life situations. So it was as if they were dutifully repeating what they've been told but because others in their lives probably rarely show them respect, they in turn don't know how to demonstrate it.

"Why do they continue to bang on tables, yell, swear, and be disruptive - week after week?" asked one of the volunteers later. "Shouldn't they be happy that someone is treating them well and being polite and nice to them?"

Well, I really don't know. If most of the time your life is disruptive and people around you aren't respectful, will two hours a week with adults who mean well but represent a lifestyle that seems really out of reach make that much of a diff?

I think one of the teenage volunteers said it best when she said, "It'll take time."