Courtesy: The Lost Art

Photo Credit: creativecommons.org

April 19, 2010

Katja Kane-Foempe, Special Sections Editor  

Filed under Opinions, Top Stories, Uncategorized

It is true that here at Presentation we do a lot of great things to help out our community. But we need to face the fact that we need to revisit the rules of common courtesy. It isn’t just we at Presentation who need to work on being more polite, but maybe we can live out our motto not words but deeds in treating people better.

Driving

It’s about 7 a.m. and you’re driving to school. You need to get over into the other lane in order to drive down Plummer Street. You notice the little Presentation blue sticker on the car next to you. You signal and speed up a little hoping that your generous classmate will let you in. Instead of letting you in, your classmate decides to speed up so that you cannot get into the lane and therefore make you miss the turn. Now let me ask you a question; how hard is it to let someone in when they need to get into the other lane? It’s not hard at all, especially if that person is someone that goes to your very own school! Instead of being the spark that can cause road rage, kindly let the person in. How would you like to be known as the student that cuts both her classmates and teachers off?

When and if the person lets you into her lane, kindly say thank you. Obviously she will not hear you unless you stick your head out the window, look back and yell it out. Instead do what is called the “courtesy wave” to let the other driver know that you appreciate her act of kindness.

Also, signaling to let other drivers know that you would like to enter another lane or exit a lane is simple, but apparently extremely difficult for many drivers to comprehend. The signal indicator is used to help prevent accidents. It isn’t there to look pretty or make your car look fancy, so use it. Though you may be far ahead of someone it is still polite to signal in order to enter the other lane.

Hallway

Let’s say that you’re juggling thirty pounds of books in your backpack, you have your soccer gear in your left hand and two cups of coffee in the right hand. A student kindly opens the door to let you in. You try to walk as fast as you can because the coffee cups are beginning to slip out of your right hand. There is a student walking in front of you and you pray that she picks up the pace a little. You notice that your locker in only a few more feet away. As you make the final steps to your locker, the student suddenly stops in front of you causing you to drop your coffee and fall backwards along with your thirty pounds worth of books. As you can see, stopping randomly in the hallway isn’t only aggravating, but can cause damage. If you are planning to make such a maneuver, walk to the very right or left of the hallway and let traffic pass through the middle.

Another issue that could have caused disaster to the student with the heavy books and slipping coffee cups is if there were a large group of students standing or sitting in the very middle of the hallway. When you get to school, sit on the side of the hallway by the lockers or against the wall to prevent a traffic jam. Also, because you are sitting against the lockers, be courteous to those students whose lockers you are sitting up against and don’t get frustrated with them. When the morning reaches around 7:30 a.m. it gets busy and crowded, so be respectful to your classmates and teachers and sit on the side of the lockers.

Many teachers close their classroom doors to prevent noise from other classes from disturbing their classes. Once the bell rings to end the class period, you’re probably relieved that the period is over so you swing open the classroom door. There’s only one problem; there’s a student standing on the other side of the door. You unknowingly swing open the door knocking over the student. The solution to this situation is simple; carefully and slowly open the classroom door to prevent hurting other students. Yes, it is thrilling that your class is over but don’t you agree that the safety of your classmates is more important?

Listening

When people are talking to you, they expect that you give them your most undivided attention. So instead of cranking up your ipod and listening to music, set it down for the five minutes that someone is talking to you and listen what they have to say. Even if you can hear them, you are not processing the full depth of what they are saying to you. Think about this; if it was a teacher talking to you, would you stick your headphones into your ears? No.

Also, in the same spectrum, texting and checking your phone while you are out with another person, is a definite no. If you are out with another person, you go because you enjoy their company and would like to talk to them face to face. It’s rude if you are chatting with another person via your cell phone while completely ignoring the person in front of you.

Overall, students need to practice being more courteous to the people around them. What better place to start then in or around their very own high school.

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Tags: common courtesy, Opinions, presentation high school