This paper suggests ways in which educators can help students develop responsibility, as well as academic skills and intellectual growth. The four steps in decision-making are outlined to show that decision and action should follow logically once the behavior and its consequences have been identified. A technique referred to as contracting is suggested to provide the format for teachers to help children learn a responsible decision-making procedure. Three rules for changing academic and social behaviors are outlined, using operant conditioning, i.e.,: (1) reinforcing a desired behavior increases its reoccurrence; (2) most effective reinforcement occurs immediately after the behavior; and (3) target behaviors frequently need to be developed through a series of successive approximations of the terminal target behavior. (JAC)