Live Every Day with Character Program
AUGUST
Character Value: Responsibility*— Moral, legal, or mental accountability; reliability. It is based on obligation; it prompts individuals to be accountable for who they are and what they do. Responsibility involves being dependable and accountable for your words and actions, doing your best, and making sure that work is done correctly and on time
Theme: Academic Skills (i.e. Study skills, Test-taking skills, etc.)
Weekly Quote: “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.”—John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Weekly Quote: “You cannot evade the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”—Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President
Weekly Quote: “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
Weekly Quote: “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”—Albert Einstein
Additional Quote: “The price of greatness is responsibility.”—Winston Churchill
SEPTEMBER
Character Value: Respect*— To consider worthy of high regard; esteem. This trait centers on the Golden Rule—treat others the way that you want to be treated. This involves using good manners; practicing nonviolence; taking care of property, people, the environment, and oneself; respecting those who are different.
Theme: Self-Concept
Weekly Quote: “Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.”—Baltasar Gracian 1
Weekly Quote: “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.”—Laurence Sterne ‘Live Every Day with Character’ Program Monthly Values and Life Skills Calendar
Weekly Quote: “Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.”—Eldridge Cleaver
Weekly Quote: “They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.”—Mahatma Gandhi
Weekly Quote: “The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.”—George Bernard Shaw Additional Quote: “If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
OCTOBER
Character Value: Integrity—Firm adherence to a code moral or ethical values. It implies sincerity and honesty. Integrity means being strong enough to do what you know is right, knowing the difference between right and wrong, and choosing the right thing even when it is difficult.
Theme: Decision-Making
Weekly Quote: “My life is my message.”—Mahatma Gandhi, Nationalist Leader
Weekly Quote: “Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.”—Henry David Thoreau, Writer
Weekly Quote: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”—Albert Einstein (in a quote about Gandhi)
Weekly Quote: “Some people fall for everything and stand for nothing.”—Aristotle
Weekly Quote: “Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”—Winston Churchill
NOVEMBER
Character Value: Caring*— To sincerely feel interest, consideration, or concern for others. Rather than giving to others to get something in return, caring people give because it makes others feel good and/or makes their life better. It involves having compassion and putting other people’s needs before your own; doing kind and thoughtful deeds for people in need.
Theme: Community/Global Awareness
Weekly Quote: “The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.”—Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and Activist
Weekly Quote: “No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.”—Aesop
Weekly Quote: “I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”—Etienne de Grellet
Weekly Quote: “I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.”—Mother Teresa Additional Quote: “Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.”—Euripides, Orestes (408 B.C.)
DECEMBER
Character Value: Trustworthiness*—Worthy of confidence; dependable. A trustworthy person is honest, reliable, and loyal. This involves telling the truth, keeping promises, being honest, following through on commitments, and doing what is right even if it is hard to do.
Theme: Friendship
Weekly Quote: “Trust one who has gone through it.”—Virgil
Weekly Quote: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”—Lenin
Weekly Quote: “This above all; to thine own self be true.”—William Shakespeare Additional Quote: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”—Dale Carnegie
JANUARY
Character Value: Fairness*— An elimination of one’s own feelings, prejudices, and desires so as to achieve a proper balance of conflicting interests. Fairness means doing what is right to make sure others are not treated badly. Sometimes fairness means equal, but fairness does not always mean the same. This trait values equality, impartiality in making decisions, and willingness to correct mistakes. It applies to taking turns, sharing, rightful consequences, and not blaming others.
Theme: Conflict Resolution
Weekly Quote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Weekly Quote: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”—Benjamin Franklin
Weekly Quote: “A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so.”—Walter Lippman
Weekly Quote: “I dream of the day when all Americans will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Additional Quote: “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”—Duke Ellington, U.S. Composer/Jazz Musician
FEBRUARY
Character Value: Citizenship*— Member in a community. Citizens have a moral obligation to do their share to honor and improve on traditions of freedom, democracy, and independence. Citizenship involves making a community, school, neighborhood, and home better by cooperating, respecting authority, obeying rules and laws, voting, and protecting the environment.
Theme: Leadership
Weekly Quote: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”—John F. Kennedy, U.S. President
Weekly Quote: “No matter what language we speak, we all live under the same moon and stars.”—John Denver, U.S. Singer and Songwriter
Weekly Quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”—Margaret Mead
Weekly Quote:: “One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.”—Chinese proverb Additional Quote: “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”—Margaret Thatcher, Former Prime Minister of England
MARCH
Character Value: Self-Discipline—Correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement. Self-discipline is making good choices, having control over your thoughts, feelings, and actions, being patient, taking responsibility for your actions, and practicing good habits.
Theme: Goal Setting
Weekly Quote: “With self-discipline, most anything is possible.”—Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. President
Weekly Quote: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”—Johann von Goethe, Poet and Dramatist
Weekly Quote: “If it is to be, it is up to me.”—Shirley Nelson Hutton, U.S. Businesswoman
Weekly Quote: “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”—Will Rogers, U.S. Cowboy/Philosopher/Comedian
Additional Quote: “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.”—Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
APRIL
Character Value: Humility—The quality of being humble. Not being proud or arrogant; being grateful for what one has.
Theme: Career Readiness Skills
Weekly Quote: “Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.”—William Temple, Statesman
Weekly Quote: “The farther a man knows himself to be free from perfection, the nearer he is to it.”—Gerard Groote, Reformer
Weekly Quote: “Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. . . They are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”—T.S. Eliot, Poet
Weekly Quote: “Humility is the foundation of all other virtues.”—Confucius
Weekly Quote: “If I have seen farther than other men it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”—Isaac Newton, English Mathematician and Physicist
MAY
Character Value: Perseverance—To persist despite opposition or discouragement. Perseverance helps someone stick with an activity until it is finished. It means not giving up and not quitting.
Theme: Vision
Weekly Quote: “I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2,000 step process.”—Thomas Edison, Inventor
Weekly Quote: “The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”—Marcel Proust, French Novelist
Weekly Quote: “Right is always right, even if everyone is against it. And wrong is always wrong, even if everyone is for it.”—William Penn