What is a School of Respect?
A School of Respect is a school whose entire operation is built upon the foundation of respect.* This means that respect permeates and guides all aspects of the operation of the school - including instruction, classroom management, student support, student discipline, social-emotional learning, parent engagement, community engagement, PBIS, and the School Improvement Plan. The foundation of respect acts a roadmap to help the school operate as efficiently as possible and to help students reach their full potential. (*Our definition of respect is: "showing that someone or something is important by what you say and do.)
Schools of Respect was started by an educator with over thirty years of experience working with youth to help address a huge problem that we all face - the low level of respect that exists in our society. Unfortunately, too many people do not have the strong respect for their job (which for young people is to be a student), others, and themselves that they need in order to reach their full potential. Symptoms of this problem include things like bullying, school and work underachievement, the onset of health problems at an early age, broken families, crime, and violence. Our opinion is that we have a full-blown "Respect Crisis" on our hands.
The Respect Leadership Team, which consists of administrators, teachers, school counselors, and the Schools of Respect professional consultant (who attends team meetings virtually), creates an annual Respect Plan. The plan, which is part of the School Improvement Plan, outlines how the school will model, teach, encourage, and positively reinforce respect in all three areas (job, others, yourself). We provide suggestions for all aspects of the Respect Plan. The four parts of the plan are:
1. How will we model respect?
What is the plan for encouraging every faculty/ staff member, as well as student leaders, to model what respect for your job, others, and yourself looks like on a daily basis? (When all of these people put in the effort to model respect daily, it makes it more likely that students will have have strong respect their job, others, and themselves.)
2. How will we teach respect?
What is the daily, month by month, and/or quarterly plan for teaching students how to respect their job, others, and themselves in a fun way? (What Respect Club videos/virtual assemblies from the Bee Respectful YouTube® channel or possibly created by the school's Respect Club, classroom guidance lessons, etc. do we feel will be the most helpful for our students this school year?)
3. How will we encourage respect?
What is the plan for encouraging students to have strong respect for their job, others, and themselves? It is one thing to teach students the skills that they need in order to respect in all three areas, but it is another to encourage them in a positive, enthusiastic manner to have strong respect on a daily basis. (We have to be sure that students of all ages can answer the question, "If I respect my job, others, and myself - what's in it for me?")
4. How will we positively reinforce respect?
What is the plan for giving students positive reinforcement, in a manner which does not reduce intrinsic motivation, to students who respect their job, others, and themselves? (If we truly believe that having strong respect is really important, we have to make positive reinforcement a big deal.)