R-E-S-P-E-C-T: We Found Out What it Means to Us!
County Prep/ATD students celebrated the Week of Respect on October 3-7 in their English classes with great success. From classroom reading and writing assignments to creative, artistic displays, students worked on recognizing what respect means to them and how to show it to all throughout the building.
World Literature teachers Ms. Feury and Ms. Perry, along with Literary Masterpieces teacher Ms. Fedele, led activities that allowed students to research how respect is defined in different communities and cultures, culminating in colorful, artistic displays. The students contributed quotations, phrases explaining what and whom we should respect, and the word “respect” itself in more than a dozen languages. Ms. Perry and Ms. Feury asked their Freshmen students to define respect. One student wrote, “Respect is being non-judgmental to others despite differences. It is also being able to tolerate something you view as ‘different.’” Another student reflected, “Respect is necessary to keep a community united.”
Taking a different approach, for the Week of Respect Ms. Noel’s Seniors worked on a project titled “Respect in Reflection.” Students first reflected on themselves because respect starts from the inside and projects outward. Answering this question was key: Do you respect yourself the way you want to be respected? The students started with the quotation, “He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and after discussing its meaning they set off on their journey of self-reflection.
They then created a mask; on the outside they painted what they present to the world daily, the masks they wear every day. On the inside they painted how they truly felt on the inside, the person they don’t show anyone. When presenting their masks, one student stated, “We all wear masks to hide the thoughts, pressures, worries, we have inside. Sometimes we have bad days when even our masks can’t hide how we feel. Realizing that my peers struggle with similar issues makes me appreciate and respect them more.”
Overall, it was a wonderful week filled with opportunities for students to reflect on themselves and those around them, contributing to the positive school culture at County Prep, based upon the recognition of the value of all members of our school community.