The Golden Rule and The Three Pillars of Care - West Dalhousie School (2024)

The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as you want to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in most religions and cultures. It can be considered an ethic of reciprocity in some religions, although different religions treat it differently. The Golden Rule is a moral principle which denotes that you should treat others the way you want to be treated yourself. For example, the golden rule suggests that if you would like people to treat you with respect, then you should make sure to treat them with respect too.

At West Dalhousie School the Golden Rule is something we learned about this month and practiced its intention under the umbrella of our Three Pillars of Care; Care for Others; Care for Yourself and Care for This Place. Students and staff were given a weekly challenge for the whole month of January that centered on Respect. A bulletin board of 'Respect and our Three Pillars of Care' was created. Students and staff shared their ideas of how they action respect on a red paper heart and stapled it on the bulletin board. The goal was for our Bulletin Board to be filled with our respectful heart messages.

Respect is the first positive step in building a relationship. It is also an essential element for conflict transformation. William Ury writes in his book The Third Side: "Human beings have a host of emotional needs for love and recognition, for belonging and identity, for purpose and meaning. If all these needs had to be subsumed in one word, it might be respect."

At WDS we want to be respectful citizens and as such are challenged to create respect in our school and our community.

Respect is created in many ways. We learned that we need to:

1. Treat others as we would want to be treated. Events in life and relationships are connected. So the growth of respect nourishes itself from its own process and dynamics. Show respect and in turn you get respect.
2. Accept others for who they are and being open to their differences. Having an open mind is very important. Understanding other cultures or another person's perspective is a positive life attitude and belief.
3. Be courteous and listen to what others have to say and treat people fairly so that trust can be nourished.
4. Remember that when in conflict; the issue is the problem not the person.