Social Responsibility

“Each of us is a being in himself and a being in society, each of us needs to understand himself and understand others, take care of others and be taken care of himself.”  ~Haniel Long

Social Safety and Social Responsibility

We all understand physical safety as the need to protect one’s body from harm. We can close our eyes and picture a very similar environment. While we may differ some, we have common ground on which to communicate.  I wonder if that is true when we talk about being socially safe at Holiday Park. What does that mean for our students? What does that mean for our staff? What does that mean for our community? Let’s close our eyes and visualize this. Umm… a little bit hard to do, right? Let’s see if we can start to create a path to common ground and common language surrounding social safety.

What is social responsibility? Social safety? Social learning? Simple definition of social:

·       relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other

·       liking to be with and talk to people: happy to be with people

·       of or relating to people or society in general

Holiday Park is a living social organization. We can only do our work socially. We cannot work in isolation or alone. Therefore, we have to consider our social responsibility, safety, and learning as a fundamental component of our organization. It is crucial to the success of our school that we find common ground, commit to our social responsibilities, and expect the same from each of us here at Holiday Park.

Social responsibility, as related to our school, means that every person within Holiday Park behave ethically and with sensitivity toward each other, the learning environment, and our commitments toward our mission and vision.  We are expected to have a positive impact on our organization and act in accordance with the norms of right and wrong. 

Each of us has a social responsibility that includes active engagement towards the everyday success of the entire school. Doing the right thing, everyday, is the goal. That being said, social responsibility also means we refrain from acting or behaving negatively toward the organization as a whole. Each of us taking an active stance when other members of the organization are engaging in harmful actions, behaviors, or words is the only way we will move forward and ensure our organization is socially safe. The only way we will each take an active stance, quite simply, is to just do it.  If we continue to stay silent, agree, and look the other way, we are not being socially responsible within the organization. We need to be able to hold high standards for each other and then hold each other accountable for them.

So what does all of this mean to us? For me, this means acting in ways that would fall within what our society would accept as ethical, sensitive, and the right thing to do. This can be challenging at times. We are human, and at times our amygdala takes over, and our brains get hijacked. This will happen. With grace we reflect, try to make restitution, recognize the trigger, make a plan to overcome this trigger, work the plan, and get better at handling our own emotions.

 According to research there are three types of people when it comes to individual social responsibility:

1.     Two-thirds of U.S. adults have “Good Intentions” – they believe that social responsibility is a good idea, and they do what they can in terms of being engaged, but they do not sacrifice huge amounts of time or money.

2.   At the top end of the spectrum, 8 percent of U.S. adults “Practice What They Preach” and for this group, individual, as well as corporate, social responsibility is extremely important.

3.   One-quarter of U.S. adults, however, follow a philosophy of “To Thine Own Self Be True” and, for this group, social responsibility has little consequence in their lives.

We must be number 1’s at a minimum. Our students, their families, and this community depend on it. We can strive to become number 2’s together and support each other along the way. We cannot accept or allow number 3’s in this organization. It is too harmful to the staff and the ethical ramifications for our community are too great.

We need to work together to create a common understanding of our social norms together. This should include:

     Verbal communication

     Non-verbal communication

     Commitment to expectations

     Commitment to open communication

     Active engagement

     Willingness to help

     Willingness to act

And any other actions and/or behaviors that fit within this category.

This week, my goal towards my social responsibility at Holiday Park is to have more control over my non-verbal reactions. I will not roll my eyes, look away from, or disengage when I am speaking with anyone at Holiday Park.

    

      

Would you like to be the new owner of the passes below? They are looking for a classroom to live in. The first staff member to share their goal this week toward social responsibility wins!