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High School Workshop
Even in high school
students struggle to come up with simple
definitions for respect, empathy and judgment.
The importance of defining and understanding
these words can give individuals the
opportunities that can be passed over by a
simple look. Kevin helps to define and
understand these words in real world situations.
by
Prindi Flug, Career Education
Central High
School
May 12, 2005
One day each
semester, for the past two years, Kevin Chong
has ambled down the halls of Central High
School, in Independence, Oregon, on his way to
share thoughts about Respect in the Workplace
with the students in my Career Apprenticeship
classes. His visit is part of a unit on
Employability where students examine different
qualities that make a good employee. Respect in
their future workplaces, as well as in their
present work-site (aka, school) is one of the
focuses.
We get ready
for Kevin’s visit by examining stories of how
employees’ gross disrespect towards fellow
workers often results in their losing their jobs
and sometimes causes their companies to pay out
huge sums of money as judgments in lawsuits. We
also try to define the word respect and
other words like empathy and judgment
and look at the inter-play of those ideas, in
answering various questions, in an attempt to
put together a cohesive congruent approach as to
how to treat people in general, and in the
workplace.
Another
activity we do is to observe both kind and rude
behavior at Central High School. Students are
given strict guidelines for making and recording
observations. Both students and teachers are
observed at all times of the day and all
locations on the school campus. Special care is
given to record the observations using general
descriptors, so as not to reveal or target any
one person. Half-sheets of paper with the
observations clearly printed on them, are posted
outside the Career Room. Students and faculty
are then given invitations, based on Kevin’s
Etiquette Cards, from his web-site, to come and
view the observations. The display gets quite a
bit of attention and generates a lot of
conversations. Then Kevin comes and speaks.
Kevin’s passion
for bringing the topic of respect to the
forefront of people’s minds is captivating and
his candid discussion of his disability along
with the long list of his interests and
accomplishments is disarming. In no time at
all, students are examining their concepts of
what respect really is and struggling to come up
with a simple definition of the word. Kevin
then gives them a first hand experience in
empathy as he has them attempt to write their
names on the whiteboard with a marker attached
to the end of a four-foot dowel. This activity
almost perfectly mimics what it is like for
Kevin to write. No one can do it and they
really start to get what empathy is all about.
I think that is where the best kind of respect
begins, when you can envision what life is like
for someone else. From there, the discussion
takes many twists and turns. Kevin does not
tell them what to think but continually probes
them with questions that make them examine
themselves and how they treat people. It is a
strategy that produces some excellent,
independent responses.
Respect in the
workplace would be far less of an issue if we
were to really take seriously, respect in
schools. Raising awareness of kindness and
rudeness at school on the part of all members of
the “work-place” is one of the first steps in
fostering change in the way people treat each
other. Kevin’s work with my students has given
them the opportunity to reflect and see other
options for behavior. It is true education in
its finest form.
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