PBIS: Reliability and Accountability

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.01: Reliability to Yourself

 

Jason wished that his whiskers would grow with some reliability. (Source)

If there's anything that Shakespeare, Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, and Scream Queens have taught us, it's that you can't rely on anyone—not even your friends. Everyone always lets you down... and then usually stabs you.

But before you decide that "under the duvet" is the best place to spend the next 70-80 years of your life, we'll soften that statement.

Not everyone can be 100% reliable all the time. Stuff happens and you can't control it. You know what you can control, though? What you do.

• You can't control the people who promised to help you move into your family's crypt to research your role as Dracula in your school play.

• You can't control the person who put their right blinker on to exit as you were trying to merge into oncoming traffic.

• You can't control your parents, you teachers, your friends, your mayor, your barista, or the dude that drives the ice cream truck in your neighborhood—no Pink Panther Pops again, Henrik?! I thought we talked about this.

Can you tell we're bitter?

Ultimately, you can't control the people around you. The world is a lonely blue planet spinning in infinite space... and your life sometimes reflects this alienating fact. But hey, in the meantime, focus on you. When you promise someone something (including yourself), follow through. If you want to get something done, do it yourself.

This lesson's all about self-reliance, baby. Now, get to it.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.01: Self-Reliance: The Foundation

Here's the weird fact about reliability and accountability: it's all about you.

We're being serious. If you let someone down, they'll be disappointed for a quick sec, but they'll get over it. What is going to last, though, is the fact that they're not going to be itching to trust you again.

If you're all over the place, totally scatter-brained, focused one minute but wrapped up in an epic binge of Game of Thrones the next, then you aren't building a good rep for reliability. If you make empty promises, people won't think you can be held accountable.

This is tragic for a number of reasons. For one, it means that you'll lose friends, the trust of teachers, and the respect of peers. For another, you might begin to doubt that you ever can be reliable or accountable.

We're guessing that you're a pretty reliable person already. We trust you, Shmooper. But we know that there's a tenuous relationship between self-esteem and reliability. If you think you're not up for much, then it's harder to rely on yourself. If you don't know if you can be relied on, it's easy for your self-esteem to falter.

So the first step to becoming reliable is to convince yourself that you can be reliable. And that starts with a crash course in self-reliance.

By Yourself... But Also Not

Self-reliance brings to mind characters like Han Solo. Lisbeth Salander. Mark Watney.

These are all characters that go it alone. They look out for number one, and they do what needs to be done in order to succeed. They're not looking for anyone to hold their hand when the going gets rough.

These characters are awesome, and it's not hard to admire them. But what you really should be doing is trying to make it happen in the same way these characters do: with pigheaded determination and a healthy sense of self-reliance.

But you know what happens to these characters? They all realize that they need other people's help. When Han Solo is stuck in carbonite, he needs Princess Leia to rescue him. When Mark Watney is stuck on Mars, he needs his fellow astronauts to rescue him. When Lisbeth Salander—oh. Wait. Lisbeth Salander pretty much always saves herself.

However, she does need other people to help her be more awesome than she already was.

And while this may seem like the opposite of self-reliance, knowing your limits (and when to ask for help) is actually going to boost your ego. If you can say "Hey, look: I'm not that great at math. Can you help?" it actually reinforces the fact that you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you can kick butt on any history paper that comes your way. When you say "Dang. I'm not great at singing. Train me?" it will make you that much more aware that you need zero extra training when it comes to playing guitar.

Rely On Being Reliable

Sometimes, there's nothing like a good old-fashioned rubric.

The ideas of "reliability" and "accountability" can sound a bit out there. These are huge concepts, and it's hard to know whether you're doing it right... especially when your aim is self-reliance. (You can't, for example say "Hey, self: how am I doing on that whole being-reliable thing?)

So without further ado: here's your guideline for being a reliable superstar.

Trust

Can you trust yourself to get the job done?

We know that things get rough sometimes: mad-scientist looking math problems appear out of the blue, and essay questions so difficult that Shakespeare himself couldn't understand them show up on midterms.

But these freak occurrences aside, can you trust yourself to take care of business? Can you tell yourself "I'm going to study enough to pass this test" and then deliver? Can you say "Hey, self. This year you're going to run a seven-minute mile," and trust yourself that it will happen?

Hey, self-reliance doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't even happen over a series of years. But being able to trust yourself to take care of the most important person in your life—you—is invaluable.

Quality

You can't just rely on yourself to do it; you have to be able to rely on yourself to do it well. Otherwise, what's the point?

Sure, you could say "Today, I will do a completely mediocre job on my homework, and I'll tell myself that I'll work out but I won't." But why would you do that?

You need to be able to rely on yourself to pull out all the stops. You need to say "I'm going to ace this essay on Romeo and Juliet," and then figure out how to make that statement true.

Sure, this takes time. It takes trial and error. But the ego-boost—and the fact that you'll be able to trust yourself—is totally worth it.

Consistency

Do it, do it well, and do it... all the time.

Easier said than done, right? But hey—we're not talking about a streak of straight A's, flawless pirouettes, or touchdowns. We're talking about the effort put in.

You want to know that you (again, the issue of self-reliance doesn't concern anyone else) can be relied upon to try. To try hard. To get up from a defeat and try again. Yes, it's cliched. But it's also true.

And here's the secret: it feels good. Doing a poor job on your homework so you can check Instagram is fun, but it doesn't feel good. Sleeping through track practice is nice, but it doesn't feel good.

What feels good—and what makes you feel good about yourself—is trying really hard to do awesome things. You know we're telling the truth here.

Sample Lesson - Activity