Social Responsibility for Students

 

Social responsibility is “an ethical theory, in which individuals are accountable for fulfilling their civic duty; the actions of an induvial must benefit the whole society” (Van, 2020). I previously shared about educators needing to have the disposition of social responsibility (Social Responsibility as an Educator (technologies4teaching.blogspot.com). In the same vein, it is important to impart social responsibility to students. Carbonero et al. (2017) indicate that is the shared duty of parents and schools to teach students to value social responsibility, and in their study, an open parenting style and teacher modeling were found to be most effective at improving responsibility skills.

Being socially responsible is different from the personal responsibility commonly taught in schools. It does not just pertain to following the rules, completing assignments, and taking care of oneself. Social responsibility involves considering the well-being and needs of others. In a world where success and achievement are idolized, it is a difficult to help students to understand that it is more important to put others ahead of themselves as described in Philippians 2:4. Jesus used the Parable of the Good Samaritan to teach what it meant to be a good neighbor, providing a picture for Christians of what social responsibility should look like. 

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii^[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (English Standard Bible, 2001/2017, Luke 10:30-37)

 

References

Carbonero, M. A., Martin-Anton, L. J., Otero, L., & Monsalvo. E. (2017). Program to promote personal and social responsibility in the secondary classroom. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00809

English Standard Bible. (2017). English Standard Version Bible Online. https://www.esv.org (Original work published 2001)

Van, V. H. (2020). Social responsibility of students: The role and importance of education. Journal of Natural Remedies, 21(8). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vu-Van/publication/348806693_SOCIAL_RESPONSIBILITY_OF_STUDENTS_THE_ROLE_AND_IMPORTANCE_OF_EDUCATION/links/6012321c299bf1b33e2d5246/SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY-OF-STUDENTS-THE-ROLE-AND-IMPORTANCE-OF-EDUCATION.pdf