Loyalty In School
vs. unfaithfulness
Demonstrating commitment to others
To practice Loyalty I will:
- support my family, friends, and peers
- stand by others in hard times
- point out the good in others
- honor my country
- help those who are bullied or abused
Core Resources
‘Dance with one who Brung You’
– Bill Croskey
Lindsay Lohan taught us about teenage girls in Mean Girls, right? They backstab, they compete for guys – just for the sake of competing, yes? They have difficulty sustaining a relationship with another female because they’re only in “it” for themselves. That all happens, I know. I saw it often in my job. But I know 2 teenagers who seem to have outgrown that mold. One young lady, Ella, has had some emotional trauma. She found a good therapist and learned to cope with life’s struggles. Her friend, Liz, has listened to these ups and downs and had offered support. At one point, the traumatized Ella said to her friend, “You are the only person I can really count on.” So, in order to give that support substance, Liz wrote herself a note which said, “Text Ella every night before bed.” Liz stuck that note on her bathroom mirror. Every night, when she brushes her teeth, she sees the reminder to text Ella. And, that’s what she does. She texts Ella and says, “I love you and care about you.”
Simple acts done reliably. There is a lot of power in that. The Character Quality of the Month is Loyalty. It is defined as “demonstrating commitment to others.” It reminds me of another act of loyalty. I have a friend, Margaret. She is in her late 80’s. Sadly, too many of her friends and loved ones have passed away. She has lost 2 husbands. Margaret is not one to sink into a depression of old age. She mourns the passing of these, but she does not fixate upon that loss. Rather, she pays tribute to them; she visits their graves. Margaret is of the generation which says that part of life is death and part of death is visiting cemeteries and leaving flowers on the graves – in short, doing your duty. This devotion to duty suggests that Loyalty is about brave commitment during hard times, but also about building reliable habits that will sustain loyal behavior through those exact hard times.
At my house, one of our mottoes was, “You gotta dance with the one who brung you.” (With my poor grammar, I didn’t get invited to a lot of dances to begin with!)