Eleanor Roosevelt High School has developed a comprehensive Community of Caring program to promote the five-core values. These are the same values that Mrs. Roosevelt, herself, espoused and modeled throughout her lifetime. The staff and students have worked together to build a positive school climate, one in which Mrs. Roosevelt would have taken great pride. As a part of the program, certain positive behaviors have come to be known as “The Roosevelt Way.” In celebration of Mrs. Roosevelt’s birthday on October 11, the school sponsored an essay contest to define “The Roosevelt Way.” The following is the first placewinning essay that was submitted by Kim Malinowski.
The Roosevelt Way is not a motto, it is not a cheer, it is not a theory, and it is no longer a simple goal. It isn’t a dream, and it isn’t a principle, it’s a way of life, and nothing to do with the Great Depression. So, what is the Roosevelt Way? The Roosevelt Way includes respect and responsibility, it encompasses trust and caring and it is the common thread that links us in a chain that will never end. It is a winning attitude and it is a way to live our lives to the fullest. It allows us to follow our paths and respect others on theirs, and on a good day, it lets us help those who have stumbled along the way.
It’s a senior pointing a freshman in the right direction, a popular student defending an outcast; it’s the weakest student doing their very best to learn, not matter what obstructs them. The Roosevelt Way knows no defeat, only triumph. When the football team loses and we shout, “good game” to the victors, that is the Roosevelt Way. It is a smile to brighten up someone’s day. It’s that hug you get from all your friends when you flunk your AP Chemistry test, and it is the Roosevelt Way when they offer to tutor you and help you out. It’s baking cookies to greet the new members of the marching band, and it is accepting the old as friends to the new.
The Roosevelt Way is all accepting and hurtful to none. It is teamwork and dedication, and it is knowing that at the end of the day you could do no better. It has little to do with academics but rather spirit. For every A, there is a D, but in the end, it is the student who might not have made the grade, but learned in the process that will succeed.
There are many hard lessons learned in Roosevelt, and our way helps us to learn. We share a bond like no one else; we really do care about the others. If one of us is hurt, we all feel the pain’ we are a community and more importantly a family. The Roosevelt Way is based on values and fundamental principles but it is summed up in trying your best and doing unto others as they would do to you. So it’s a fundamental principle, the ifference is that others theorize about the possibility and talk about it being impossible, while we do. We beat the odds, and hang in there through the rough times. Things go wrong, and they change, but we change too.
The Roosevelt Way isn’t stifling, it allows us to grow and flourish. It is the lifeblood of the school and it is in our name. We all have pride but we set it aside to help others. We live each day to the fullest, savoring life and the beauty around us. The Roosevelt Way is a creed we live by, simple in theory and in practice, but difficult with the rising tide of the easy ways.
