Respect - a way of life

Contents

• What is respect?
• Respect at home
• Respect at school
• Earning respect for yourself
• Dr Kim and Dr Kate say

What is respect?

At the start of the school year, did you spend some time in your class talking about how the class would work? If you did, I guess that you talked about some really great values like honesty, sharing and helping, responsibility, collaborating (or working together), organisation, and respect.

When you think about it, respect is probably the most important. Respect has several meanings
		Having regard for others. That means accepting that other people are different but just as important as you feel you are. Some people may call this tolerance (say tol-er-ans)
		Having a proper respect for yourself. That means that you stand up for yourself and don't let yourself be talked into doing stuff that you know is wrong or makes you feel uncomfortable.
		Not interfering with others (or their property.)
		To consider something worthy of high regard. That really means taking all those other values and living them.

Respect at home

Home is the place where you first learn about respect.

	You learn about using good manners, like saying please and thank you.
	You learn to share things like toys, games and food with other people in your family.
	You learn to look after your own things and take care of other things in the house (eg. not jumping on furniture, and wiping your feet etc, so that the house is a good place for everyone to be).
	You learn to wait your turn in talking.
	You learn to listen.

	You learn to understand that you will not always get what you want.
	You learn to respect others by helping with chores and not letting the family down.

Respect at school

When you go to school you will have to learn some different ways to respect others and yourself.

	You will learn how to be a member of a class.
	You learn to respect and keep school rules, which help to make your school a safe and caring place for everyone.
	You will meet with people from different backgrounds, maybe different countries, cultures and religions.
	Some people will look very different to you and your family.
	Some people will behave very differently to you and your family.
	You can respect their differences and expect that they will respect yours.

If people are behaving badly towards you and hurting you or your feelings, then you cannot, and must not, respect their unkind behaviour. Bullying and harassment should never be tolerated. See our topic Dealing with bullies for some ideas on how to deal with this behaviour.

Earning respect for yourself

Earning respect from yourself is probably harder than earning respect from others.

Remember those values again?
		If you aim to be an honest, caring person who accepts that everyone is different, always tries hard and is willing to share and help others, then living up to your aims can be very difficult.
		Don't give yourself too hard a time if you sometimes make mistakes. Mistakes are what we learn from.

Earning respect from others is easy if you live by those values, because people will soon know that you are the kind of person who can be trusted to do the right thing, behave in a caring way and respect others' rights to be themselves.

Respect family
Equity for everyone
Say sorry, please and thank you
People deserve respect
Ensure that everyone's rights are respected
Carry respect into all of your life
Take time to respect yourself
- Joel

Dr Kim and Kate say

 
"Make respect part of your life.

As you grow older and move out more into the world you will meet lots of different people. We live in a very diverse society and if you have learned to respect others then you will be able to fit in well with that society."

Respect Outside everyone is different Inside we're just the same. Everyone has feelings. How many can you name? The way that you treat others Is the way that they'll treat you. So respect each other's differences And they'll respect yours too. BH

We've provided this information to help you to understand important things about staying healthy and happy. However, if you feel sick or unhappy, it is important to tell your mum or dad, a teacher or another grown-up.