Principled: We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights of people everywhere. We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences. (Taken from IB learner profile)
As parents, teachers, and humans who’ve just lived a lot of life, we know that our actions have consequences. If we take the time to reflect, we can probably all think of an occasion where not acting has also had consequences, and about a time when our choices have not only just affected us, but those around us. No matter how old we are, taking responsibility can sometimes be very tough!
At all ages and stages of a child’s development we might see different things: impulsive behavior with no thought about what the consequences might be; disorganization or lethargy which causes a student to fall behind with their work, leaving them with consequences to contend with; or a tendency to blame others rather than accept responsibility and fault. A lot of what we now know came to us through our own experiences. How do we help our children turn their experiences into positive learning ones?
Take opportunities to help your children reflect. Some questions to get them thinking and discussing might be: Where did things start to go wrong? Could you have predicted those consequences? How have you been affected? How have others been affected? Often, children think the word consequence only has a negative connotation. Point out where good decisions led to good consequences and celebrate those decisions. Finally, as parents and teachers, we should be careful to not only lay out reasonable consequences but consistently enforce them. For example, we all want our students to be successful, but part of being successful is being organized. If there is a deadline, help enforce it and make sure you have the difficult conversation about how conscious actions led to the current situation.
