Wildcat Pride

Westridge Wildcats have a lot of PRIDE. Together, we create a safe, inclusive and supportive school culture where all kids learn and grow. The words represented in the acronym PRIDE are traits we value and emphasize in our school community. Through this common language and understanding, we build a culture of caring and learning.

Each month, a character trait is highlighted in our community. We define that trait through classroom lessons and discuss what it is, what it looks like, sounds like and feels like. Teachers recognize students who are role models of that trait. Check out our bulletin board by the library or look on our website to explore the character trait for each month.

We invite you join us in taking PRIDE in our community!

PERSEVERANCE

Perseverance is the ability to keep on going and not giving up, even when things get challenging.

Wildcats show perseverance by practicing a new skill, trying again after making mistakes, and working hard to reach a goal.

• “Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” – Oliver Goldsmith
• “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” – Julie Andrews
• “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison
• “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

• “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” – Newt Gingrich
• “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson
• “Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.” – Victor Hugo

RESPECT

Respect is acting with care and consideration about the thoughts, rights and feelings of yourself, others and the world around you.

Wildcats show respect by choosing kind words and actions toward themselves, others and the world around them.

• “Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.” – U. Thant
• “Never judge someone by the way he looks or a book by the way it’s covered; for inside those tattered pages, there’s a lot to be discovered.” –  Stephen Cosgrove
• “It’s not so much the journey that’s important; as is the way that we treat those we encounter and those around us, along the way.” – Jeremy Aldana
• “Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.” – R.G. Risch
• “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” – Jackie Robinson
• “I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.” -- Julius Irving

INTEGRITY

Integrity is being honest, doing the right thing (even when no one is watching) and taking responsibility for our words and actions.

Wildcats show integrity by telling the truth, choosing to do the right thing and taking responsibility for their own behavior.  

• “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain
• “The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking.” – J.C. Watts
• “When I do good, I feel good.  When I do bad, I feel bad.” – Abraham Lincoln
• “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” – Malcolm Forbes
• “Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.” -Henry David Thoreau
• “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – William Shakespeare
• “Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.” -William Shakespeare

DEDICATION

Dedication is committing to someone or something over time, even when things get difficult.

Wildcats show dedication by showing up to school each day, doing their best and working toward their goals.

• “To become a master at any skill, it takes the total effort of your: heart, mind, and soul working together in tandem.” -- Maurice Young
• “We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” --Jesse Owens
• “Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”    --Cecil B. DeMille
• “If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse.”

--Jim Rohn

• “Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” --Randy Pausch
• “There is no substitute for hard work.” --Thomas Edison

EMPATHY

Empathy is seeking to understand the thoughts, feelings and experiences of others.

Wildcats show empathy by caring about the experience of others, treating them with kindness, listening when they speak and looking for ways to help.

• “Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.” – Alfred Adler
• “We judge what we don’t understand.” – Unknown
• “I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.” – Roger Ebert
• “Empathy grows as we learn.” –  Alice Miller
• “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
• We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. – Epictetus
• “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.” – Author Unknown
• “Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins.  And it’s up to you to make that  happen.  Empathy is a quality of character that can  change the world.” – Barack Obama
• “One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider a problem, can change our whole outlook on the world.” – E. H. Mayoli
• “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant?”  – Henry David Thoreau
• “Leadership is about empathy.”– Oprah Winfrey
• “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”-  Simone Weil
• “If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.” –  Turkish Proverb
• “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” – Albert Einstein