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Building Community Michael L.
Brock
Winter 2002-2003
In my 1996 publication School-Smart Parenting: Raising Children for Success and
Happiness in School, and again in 7 Strategies for Developing Capable Students,
coauthored with Steve Glenn, I introduced the idea of a No-Rescue Contract that
could be used in school settings to promote respect, responsibility, and closer
parent/school relations. The contract has gone through several revisions since;
here it is reproduced in its latest form, and I offer it with the
recommendation that you consider using it, adapted as you see fit for your
school.
Central Elementary School
No-Rescue Contract
Recognizing that our ultimate responsibility as parents is to provide our
children with both roots and wings—roots so they will always know where home
is, and wings so they will some day be able to make it on their own—and
committed to raising our children as self-reliant young people who will grow to
understand that their efforts do have consequences, we hereby pledge to try our
best to support them in those efforts by:
• affirming them as capable young people who can dress themselves, do their own
homework, pack their own bags, find their own way to their desks, and deal with
forgotten homework, supplies, and lunches on their own;
• affirming them as significant young people who are true contributors in our
family life, not just objects of our direction or recipients of our rescuing,
and who can, with our patient assistance, come up with ideas on their own on
how best to do their homework, how best to ensure that their clothes are ready
in the morning, and how best to remember to bring all their supplies to school;
and
• affirming them as young people of influence who can make decisions on their
own, experience the consequences of those decisions, and work with us to grow
in an understanding of why their particular efforts yielded the results that
they experienced.
As parents, we realize that it is far more important that our children make
mistakes from which they can learn than that we always look good. We pledge to
work with them in both their successes and "near-successes" so that they can
learn from them. We further pledge to support the efforts of the teachers to
ensure effective discipline at the school and, in the event of a disciplinary
concern, to dialogue with our children in ways that will help them gain a
greater understanding of what happened, why it happened that way, and what they
can do next time to ensure a better outcome.
As students, we pledge to do our very best at all times, to take responsibility
for our behavior and our assignments, and to work cooperatively with our
teachers and fellow students.
And together, we parents and students pledge to treat each other respectfully
at all times, understanding that respect is not something that we need to earn
but is, rather, owed to every man, woman, and child unconditionally.
Parent Signature(s) ______________________________________________________
Student Signature __________________________________ Date ________________
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