Respect: a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities or achievements. Does respect rely solely on the success of a person, program or event? The Feather staff believes that there is a lack of respect shown by students to their peers and school leaders.

Whether it be the campus drama performance or a football game, students often either fully support the program or reject it completely. The Feather staff understands that everyone can’t respect everything around them, but we want to challenge students to rethink what their respect is based on.

When someone or something is unsuccessful, it is difficult to support them in continuing their cause. But giving up on someone or something can be the least helpful action. If every first failure was given up on, there would be no success.

So, The Feather staff wants to encourage students to learn how to give respect not based on success. Instead, respect should be earned through other aspects of life like passion or perseverance.

When a student is involved in an activity that they are passionate about, they want to be seen for what they are doing. So, when no one shows up to support them, or people continually dismiss their efforts at school, their number one focus is being disrespected.

The Feather believes that respect does not have to rely on success, but rather should be based more heavily upon effort. Even if a student is passionate about something another student doesn’t like, their peers can respect the efforts required even while standing on the sidelines.

For example, the varsity cheer squad continues to cheer on their varsity football team despite wins or losses. While watching from the stands, the cheerleaders are never phased by the scoreboard, but instead increase their encouragement. They realize how hard playing a contact sport can be and respect the team’s efforts no matter the outcome.

For students who participate in a competition sport or dance teams outsides of school, their level of commitment demands respect. The same goes for students who spend their time studying to get good grades. Or even those who tutor others in order to help those who struggle in school advance.

Peers should look for traits like these in students whose talents or commitment are less noticeable. For example, students who are not usually placed in Advanced Placement (AP) or Honors classes take on the challenge and work incessantly to get a good grade in the class. Though they might not be the smartest in the class, they are willing to sacrifice some personal time to work through the difficult work load.

PODCAST: Changes and challenges: Aug. 29 , 2012–

Teachers are a prime example where a lack of respect can influence someone’s day. We all have our favorite teacher and our least favorite teacher, but no matter our personal opinion, their jobs require respect. Teachers are responsible for our education; they spend time before and after school preparing lessons. But yet, us students continue to talk during class and disobey rules which brings no benefit and only distress onto our teachers.

The Feather wants students to review who they respect and who they don’t. By learning to respect people that we normally ignore, we can become more unified and respectable as a generation all together. We hope that students can eventually learn to respect everyone based on something other than their success.

For more editorials, read the Aug. 27 article EDITORIAL: “Standing Firm” in the midst of change (PODCAST).