mardi 18 novembre 2008

Good manners.... or not !


It's easier to learn when we are children. That's why good manners have to be teached early.
The first place where children can learn good behaviours is with their parents, way before going to school.

The six most important things a child should be taught about manners are : tolerance, respect, politeness, hygiene, sense of civic responsibility, moral.

Here are some example for each topic :
* Politeness : say hello, good-bye, please or thank you, don't swear, don't speak with your mouth full, ...
* Respect : respect to the other kids and to older people, respect others' belongings, ...
* Tolerance : respect others' opinions and others' differences, ...
* Hygiene : wash your hands before you eat, take a shower, brush your teeth, ...
* Moral : stand up and give your sit to older person, learn and respect rules at school, to be fair when you play a sport, ...
* Sense of civic responsibility : help the others, respect the environnement, vote (later), ...

But for me, all those good manners are connected. For instance, not swearing can be considered as politeness but also respect and moral. Not speaking with a full mouth can be politeness, hygiene and respect at the same time.

And first, kids learn those good behaviours at home with their parents, grand-parents or siblings. As it's the first place to learn them, it's also the most important. For me, it depends mostly on the parents.

Then children keep learning good manners at school. The problem in our actual society is that parents count to much on teachers to educate their children. But teachers don't have time enough to educate the pupils as the parents could have. So, for sure, one part of teachers' job is also to educate children but in the same way as the parents have to.
Furthermore, usually, when a teacher punish a pupil, parents desagree so the child can't know what is wrong or not.

1 commentaire:

Jacqueline a dit…

It's certainly a tricky situation for teachers. What if the teachers' values/manners are different than those of the parent? As an English teacher of adults it's extra tricky, as sometimes students do things that would be considered completely unacceptable in a typical Canadian classroom (university or otherwise). Is it my job to let students know these things, or will I be offending them by doing so? Values are so culturally dependent. Is it fair to expect people from other cultures to conform to the same values as the country they are visiting? It's such a fine line... I'm never certain about what I should do in such situations.