By Kate Gunby
Island Forum
There is no question that people like to be treated well. Everyone wants to be respected and have others follow through on their promises. In fact, Mercer Island High School students expect to receive this respect. We are living in one of the most affluent, involved, and high-achieving communities in the state, and thus it is easy to assume that we deserve something. We are the “leaders of tomorrow,” with talent and a solid foundation of education and resources from which to start our ascent into the “real world.”
Yet students vandalize property at our school and those of our rivals; cheat on our tests; complain about how heartless or dumb our teachers and administrators are; and don’t even pick up our own trash after lunch. Some of these behaviors are illegal, some destructive, and all are inconsiderate.
Students know that they are wrong. But when you get the idea that somebody owes you something, anything is fair game.
This is why I am a firm believer in the work the school district has done to promote “Mutual Respect and Shared Responsibilities.” The topic alone shows that we truly are in this together. Every student wrote what they would be willing to do to improve MIHS. All of these comments were read by the ASB officers and used to generate a list of commitments. This list was presented to the classroom representatives and approved in January. We have committed to respect other MIHS students, the entire faculty and staff, our school property, and members of other schools (the full text is on MISD Web site). We have come together to agree upon what our proper behavior is, just as the PTA, teachers, district administrators, and school board have done. Now we must move on and up to the next step.
We need to begin acting upon our promise. But this is far from easy when you’ve been raised assuming parents will constantly hassle teachers; administrators change on a yearly basis; the school board will further their own agenda and forget the students; and the students are cheating their way to the top. Everyone involved has to make an effort to move past these attitudes. Our collective mindset really has to change, so that we trust the good intentions of others, take responsibility for our actions and attitude, and work as a whole to continue to strive for excellence. It’s not about making other people owe us for our good behavior, it’s about making respect the norm, something that we do automatically.
As a freshman, I would acknowledge perhaps half of my teachers as I saw them in the hallway. Now, as a senior, I greet all of the teachers, administrators and staff. A few weeks ago, a teacher whose name I still don’t know said “good morning” to me in the hallway. It didn’t matter that we have never formally met — we’re both human and both have good intentions, and that’s all we needed to be friendly. Yet so many teachers don’t greet many of their students because the kids will just look away and pretend they didn’t hear. Somehow students manage to forget that our teachers aren’t working at the high school to get rich or make us fail our math tests; they actually are dedicated to the growth of students.
We need to shift back to a culture of kindness, to become a place where everyone feels welcome and respected. All individuals need to start thinking about their actions and making respect a habit. We must strive for something deeper, something that will last long after I graduate this June and still be going strong when current MIHS students have students of their own in our schools. We can only know how much we can progress once people truly take ownership of their behavior and are respectful.
Kate Gunby, a senior, is a MIHS Student Advisory Board officer, School Board student liaison and the student representative on the School District-wide Mutual Respect and Shared Responsibility Leadership Group.
