The Seven R’s Pledge

Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Seven R’s Pledge

I will honor my history by living by the social conduct of my foreparents.

I vow to make the place where I live and learn better than the way I found it.

I vow to live a RELIGIOUS life always seeking to do what is morally right and good.

I will RESPECT my parents, teachers, and other elders in the community and, in so doing, I will respect myself and my peers.

I will take RESPONSIBILITY for my conduct to give of my talents, my knowledge, and my skills to make the world a better place to live.

I will RESTRAIN myself from doing anything wrong that would embarrass my family, my school, , my community, or myself.

I will live in RECIPROCITY. I will give back in kindness that which I have received because this is the only way to the good life.

I will live in the RHYTHM of oneness and wholeness with the universe, always creating oneness, joy, and peace in the environment in which I live.

I will live a life of REDEMPTION, recognizing that life always offers a second chance to redeem the mistakes of the past.

I will live the “Seven R’s” in my daily life because I will shape history. I will decide the future, and I will take my people to the victorious shores of our destiny.

-Nurturing Young Black Males

A Teacher's Creed

"In the classroom on the first day of a new school year, I am eager to meet my students. I have rehearsed my greeting and first day’s remarks, but no matter how many years I’ve prepared for this procedure, it’s always new. My heart pumps a bit harder, faster; I feel adrenaline like an athlete, or like an actor, or maybe like a novice public speaker. It’s a marvelous feeling, this first day, because I know that something special is going to happen, and I know it because I’ve experienced it before and I know that I will experience it every time I meet a new class throughout my venerable career. And then they’re seated before me and I smile at this special feeling. This is an assembly of students, yes. But there’s so much more, because each of these young persons is more than just a student entrusted to me. Each of these students has a story to tell, a lifetime, however brief, of experiences, a history in volumes whose richness and depth I can barely begin to fathom. And so as I absorb the first glimpse of these young charges, I must appreciate the extent of my responsibility, of the privilege I’ve accepted in presenting these young souls my special knowledge. In offering them my talent and passion, I am adding an enormous array of new bright stars to the vast firmament of their minds, stars that will never have time to fade in their lifetimes. I will be part of their story. And I know that each of them will always be part of mine. And that’s a good feeling, a feeling that is perpetually renewed, revisited, and rewritten in A Teacher’s Creed."

Carla Ranger - Dallas ISD Education Blog

Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Seven R’s Pledge

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