RESPONSIBILITY
(n)
Definition: accountability,
Antonyms: exemption, freedom, immunity, irresponsibility
(n)
Definition: maturity, trustworthiness
Antonyms: distrust, immaturity, irresponsibility
Responsibility (Dependability, Reliability, Trustworthiness) is the act of carrying out prescribed roles and duties without supervision in home, school, community and society. Responsibility is a force that binds you to your obligations.
http://www.goodcharacter.com/ISOC/Responsibility.html  (good link for grades 7-12)

Why is responsibility important
Being responsible refers to our ability to make decisions that serve our own interests and the interests of others. We first need to be responsible for ourselves before we can be responsible for others. In learning to be more responsible it is important that we know our limitations. It does not matter how smart we are, there is only so much responsibility that a person can handle. It is also important to remember that we are not responsible for things that are out of our control, for example, how other people feel or how they react to ourselves or others. Sharing responsibility for both success and failure can lead to increased responsibility to oneself and others.
When you hear the word “responsibility,” what do you think of first? Many people think of the word BLAME, as in, “Whose responsibility is this?” I think of responsibility as seizing what’s in front of you, exerting choice, and taking control. The real meaning of responsibility is the ability to respond. It’s going out and creating what you want through personal choices. The responsibility that each of us has is that we are completely, 100% responsible for how our lives turn out. If you think that being responsible at all times is too
Responsible people look to the long-term goals, and not always what is easy and provides immediate satisfaction. Good behavior is hard to achieve, but well worth the effort on both sides, teacher and student. We all must start acting in a way that not only benefits us, but benefits our school, our community, our city, province and country. Responsible is what you are for yourself whether you like it or not. …the differences responsible people have made can be seen, not only in other people's lives, but in their own. It is made up of our outlook and daily habits associated with feelings, thoughts, and actions.   They will also expect you to be responsible for your actions and supplies. A responsible person takes care of themselves, but an irresponsible person doesn't. As we grow older we are faced with the coming of independence, which in turn brings responsibility.
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/21681.html

• If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.  ~Abigail Van Buren
• "I must do something" always solves more problems than "Something must be done."  ~Author Unknown
• A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.  ~James Allen
• If you mess up, 'fess up.  ~Author Unknown
• "It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me later on.  "When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet."  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard
• Responsibility's like a string we can only see the middle of.  Both ends are out of sight.  ~William McFee, Casuals of the Sea, 1916
• The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.  ~Joan Didion
• Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else.  ~Ivern Ball
• The great thought, the great concern, the great anxiety of men is to restrict, as much as possible, the limits of their own responsibility.  ~Giosué Borsi
• We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, duty.  It is the other side of rights.  ~Pearl Buck
• With every civil right there has to be a corresponding civil obligation.  ~Edison Haines
• I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.  ~John D. Rockefeller Jr.
• We have the Bill of Rights.  What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities.  ~Bill Maher
• Take your life in your own hands, and what happens?  A terrible thing:  no one to blame.  ~Erica Jong
• The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree
  I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.
  I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.
  ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
• When you blame others, you give up your power to change.  ~Author Unknown
• Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act.  More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular.  ~Bernard M. Baruch
• The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.  You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president.  You realize that you control your own destiny.  ~Albert Ellis
• I don't see the point of being a human being if you're not going to be responsible to your fellow human beings.  Selfishness thefts away the human and reduces you to just a being.  ~Candea Core-Starke
• Duty is what one expects from others.  ~Oscar Wilde
• For me the diamond dawns are set
  In rings of beauty,
  And all my ways are dewy wet
  With pleasant duty.
  ~John Townsend Trowbridge
• A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.  ~William James
• Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow.  ~Henry S. Haskins
• You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood.  However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it.  ~Ken Keyes, Jr.
• Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.  ~Booker T. Washington
• It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain of action.  ~Stanley Milgram
• When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.  ~Louis Nizer
• Whether or not you have children yourself, you are a parent to the next generation.  If we can only stop thinking of children as individual property and think of them as the next generation, then we can realize we all have a role to play.  ~Charlotte Davis Kasl, Finding Joy, 1994
• Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.  ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide and generous.  Its compulsion is upon us.  ~Woodrow Wilson
• No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.  ~Gerald W. Johnson
• Those who are unwilling to invest in the future haven't earned one.  ~H.W. Lewis, Technological Risk, 1990
• We all participate in weaving the social fabric; we should therefore all participate in patching the fabric when it develops holes.  ~Anne C. Weisberg, Everything a Working Mother Needs to Know, 1994
• We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.  ~George Bernard Shaw
• The Hare With Many Friends
• A Hare was very popular with the other beasts who all claimed to be her friends.  But one day she heard the hounds approaching and hoped to escape them by the aid of her many Friends.  So, she went to the horse, and asked him to carry her away from the hounds on his back.  But he declined, stating that he had important work to do for his master.  "He felt sure," he said, "that all her other friends would come to her assistance."  She then applied to the bull, and hoped that he would repel the hounds with his horns. The bull replied: "I am very sorry, but I have an appointment with a lady; but I feel sure that our friend the goat will do what you want."  The goat, however, feared that his back might do her some harm if he took her upon it.  The ram, he felt sure, was the proper friend to apply to.  So she went to the ram and told him the case.  The ram replied: "Another time, my dear friend.  I do not like to interfere on the present occasion, as hounds have been known to eat sheep as well as hares."  The Hare then applied, as a last hope, to the calf, who regretted that he was unable to help her, as he did not like to take the responsibility upon himself, as so many older persons than himself had declined the task.  By this time the hounds were quite near, and the Hare took to her heels and luckily escaped. He that has many friends, has no friends.http://www.quotegarden.com/responsibility.html

The Woman in the Glass:  When you get what you want as your struggle for self And the world makes you queen for a day, Just go to the mirror and look at yourself, And see what that woman has to say.  For it isn't your father or mother or husband Who's judgement upon you must pass; The person whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one staring back from the glass. She's the person to please, never mind all the rest, For she's with you clear up to the end. And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test If the woman in the glass if your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of life, And get pats on your back as you pass. But your final reward will be heartache and tears If you've cheated the woman in the glass http://www.storybin.com/words/words125.shtml

Today:  Mend a quarrel. Search out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in a word or deed.
Keep a promise. Find the time. Forego a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate, be kind, be gentle. Laugh a little more.
Deserve confidence. Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your gratitude. Worship your God. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still again. Speak it still once again.
http://www.storybin.com/words/words138.shtml