Personal Responsibility

Personal Responsibility

Terry Seawood

GEN/200

November 30, 2011

Personal Responsibility

A man is walking to his car with his 13 year old stepdaughter and eight year old son. The children enter the vehicle while their father walks to a dumpster near the vehicle to throw away the trash. Two armed individuals walk up to him and shoot him several times in front of his children and then flee the scene. Three days later the assailants are arrested. When questioned, the young men claim the victim was a known associate of their enemy and got what he deserved because of his friendship with their enemy. In this situation, rather than accept personal responsibility for their crime, they attempted to justify their actions. Accepting personal responsibility is important in all aspects of life whether it is a heinous crime or striving for academic success. Picture this… Dr. Ray Stevens is an instructor for a university. He gives a writing assignment to her class due by the start of class the following week. Everyone turns in the assignment except Andrew. During the first break he pulls him to the side and asks him about the assignment. Immediately, he goes into this long story about how he had to work late, his daughter had volleyball practice, and he just did not have time to get to it. He says to himself, "This lazy bum!" Ok, maybe not… What he is actually thinking is it sounds as if he lacks time management skills. Instead of admitting to a lack of planning, he makes excuses. This is a simple example of a student unwilling to accept personal responsibility for his action or lack of action. Although sometimes individuals have not been properly educated on how to accept personal responsibility, the more people understand how to accept personal responsibility the more control they will have over their own success. In order to understand the importance of accepting personal responsibility, we must first understand what it means.

Webster's...