"Who's In Charge Here?"
By Mr. Andrews

I want to ask you a rhetorical question. (What is a rhetorical question? It is one to which I already know the answer! I ask it only to stimulate your thinking.)

Who’s in charge here? I mean ultimately, "Bottom Line."

Is it me?

After all, I give you the study assignments. I give you the tests. I give you grades. I can give you punishment in the form of a detention slip. Is it me?

No, its not me. You can choose to ignore me. After all, what can Mr. Andrews actually do to you?

Is it the principal or vice principal?

He sees to it that you serve time in detention. He is the one who may speak with your parents about your behavior. Is it the principal or vice principal?

No. You can ignore him too. You can treat a detention as a big joke! I have seen that happen!

Is it your parents?

No. They don’t live here. They are not sitting on your shoulders, riding around watching everything you do, telling you “Don’t do that!” “Do this other thing over here.”

And when they hear from the school that you are not working, or that you don’t seem to care about school, or that you are disruptive, they may make life hard for you. Is it your parents?

No. You can choose to ignore their attempts to correct you. It happens much too often!

Is it God?

No. Because He has given you free will, to either love and obey Him, or to ignore Him. You can ignore His plan for you. You can stand in the "toilet bowl of bad choices," and reach over and press the flush handle!

If you are willing to take the consequences, you can choose to DISRESPECT ALL AUTHORITY. You can choose to ignore ALL efforts to help you. It is like shooting yourself in the foot! You can do that if you want, if are willing to suffer the pain!

Who is In Charge of You? YOU ARE!

The bottom line is:

Your choices control whether or not you succeed in school.
Your choices control whether or not you succeed in LIFE.

If you mess up, we can make your life uncomfortable, or even miserable. You can still choose to ignore us. And sometimes kids do just that! I have seen it happen.

No one can FORCE you to learn. You can choose to succeed in school, OR you can choose to make no effort in school. I’ve seen kids who manage to stay out of trouble, but choose to not study. They simply don’t care about learning. They don’t care what grade they get. They don’t care about their future. They don’t care about themselves.

If students are ultimately in charge of themselves, why do some not try to do well? Sometimes it is simply they have NO SELF RESPECT!

(Do YOU respect yourself? Click here to reach the Self Respect Quiz!)

Do you respect yourself? What choices are you going to make?

(The following are NOT rhetorical questions.)

Are you going to choose to:

Become a person of High Quality?
OR

Be just ho-hum, mediocre, a low quality person?

Become a person with much knowledge and ability?
OR

Be ignorant, with few skills?

Become a person who is highly respected, trusted, and admired?
OR

Be viewed with lack of respect, distrust, and pity?

Become a person of power and influence: a leader?
OR

Just another "mindless" member of the human herd?

I hope you RESPECT yourself. I hope you make the choices on the left side of the table.
Your future DEPENDS on the choices YOU are making NOW!
PLEASE, CHOOSE to do well in school!
 
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