Manners

As a teacher, I am truly amazed at  the number of children who have not been taught any manners.  Actually, it seems that the older they get, the less manners they have.  I have taught grade levels Kindergarten through 12th grade over the last twenty plus years.  It has been my experience that the younger children (K-4 through about 3rd or even 4th grade) tend to have better manners.  If they don’t have a grasp of what it means to have good manners, they are easily taught those skills, usually over a short period of time.  Then, the rest of the academic year tends to go pretty well.  Manners mean everything in school.  Without manners, we get very little done.  Then, the public wonders why test scores are low!  Well, if a teacher is constantly interrupted or forced to stop and teach basic manners, very little teaching/learning is going on.  That is rather unfortunate, given the sheer volume of objectives that teachers are expected and/or required to guide the students to master.

Good manners should first be taught at home, by the parents, then, reinforced at school by the teachers, administration, and staff.  Teaching a child to say “Yes, maam”, “No, sir”, “please”, and “thank you” are just the beginnings of teaching the basics of good manners.  My perfect world would be a classroom full of students who would allow me to finish a sentence, WITHOUT, rudely and thoughtlessly, being interrupted.  I’ve tried several different methods of teaching the concept of waiting until someone finishes talking, getting permission to talk, THEN, speaking when called upon.  Maybe it’s just the age group I’m working with now – sixth through eighth grades, that has this problem.  My little Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade students knew not to interrupt anyone else, especially, the teacher.  However, my middle school students have been in school for six months now, and STILL interrupt me.  I thought maybe it was just because I had taught at the elementary level for the last seven years, but, my teacher pals all tell me they have the same problem!!

Again, manners must be taught at home, folks.  We need manners back in school.  Without them, we are spinning our wheels, and not accomplishing all of our academic goals.  We’re too busy teaching what should have been taught before these students ever even entered Headstart, Pre-School, or Kindergarten.  Please, Moms and Dads, we desperately need your help in this very important job.