I’ve often observed that children in kindergarten are given more responsibility than students in middle school or any other grade for that matter. In kindergarten, children are taught how to pick up and put away, pass things out, hang up their work, straighten out the coat closet, wipe up spills, water the plants, feed a classroom pet, lead the class down the hall, hold the door for the class, greet visitors to the classroom. These jobs are rotated on a regular basis so that children have a chance to experience each of the responsibilities 3 or 4 times a year. Classrooms have job charts or job wheels and teacher have clever ways for children to be selected at random for their jobs, so long as they don’t hold a job for two weeks in a row, or the same job more than a certain number of times during the year.

As children move through the grades I tend to see less and less of this type of responsibility evident in classrooms. It begins to be replaced with responsibility for not falling behind with assignments, for getting homework in on time, for returning library books, for organization of work folders and desk space. Note that the shift is away from responsibilities that benefit and are visible to the classroom community to more personal responsibility.

Both types of responsibility are important to teach, but elementary classroom teachers who maintain expectations for shared responsibilities in the classroom find that the benefits of classroom chores carry over to students helping each other remember their personal responsibilities. Teachers in older grades even set up “homework buddies” who, with parent permission, exchange phone numbers or emails to discuss challenging homework assignments or help each other catch up when they miss a day of school.

It would be great for teachers at any elementary grade level to post their thoughts on teaching shared responsibility in their classroom, or if you’re shy please send me an email at yardsticksblog@gmail.com