It is important to have nice manners

After a trip to my one and only, my favourite absolute supermarket in Brasilia Pao de Acucar today we have just eaten the most delicious fake souvalakis you can get your hands on.

The supermarket provided some interesting entertainment. It amazes me how so many people, well academically educated or otherwise have absolutely no manners at all. I find this disappointing and a little bit shameful as it is becoming quite apparent to me that the importance of good manners is becoming a thing of the past. I say this after a man left the line prior to my arrival and then abruptly informed me of his place being infront of me without any concern or worry that what he was saying was both rude and not the way that lines work.

I was brought up to believe that manners were as pertinent to life as air or water and the failure to demonstrate them resulted in a swift kick in the backside or a slap upside the head. It was amazing how quickly one learnt to always use one's manners at home, at school, in the street, everywhere and anywhere you went. My parents found it one if their main responsibilities to make sure that my 3 sister and I were equipped with excellent manners and the social skills to survive in any situation. I dare say that their methods were questionable but the result I must say was quite an achievement.

The highlight of the afore written paragraph is the fact that it was my parents personal decision to make social skills and good manners a personal quest. Nowadays, in a society of nannies and babysitters, afterschool care or at times no supervision at all, children are just not equipped to enter society and be socially aware of  the prerequisites that that entails.
The other aspect of this problem is that nowadays both parents usually work, business hours are longer, life pressures are higher too, so does that mean that tired busy parents are resulting in under-educated children socially?

I hear a lot of parents say "I pay a fortune for my child's schooling so it is their responsibility to educate them." I also see in my class that I am constantly reminding my students (children and adults alike) of the importance of saying please and thank you, sorry or pardon instead of 'WHAT?' and it is amazing how foreign my students find it when I do this.
I find it said that so many parents have reliquished responsibility for so many aspects of their childrens learning process. However, I am not sure that these parents are even all that aware of what their actions will result in. As for the adults such as the man mentioned above, I imagine that his life would be far easier if he were polite with other people.
I am not sure that there is a manual defining the responsibilities of the teacher, the parent, the nanny, the school carer etc ready to download but I am quite sure that having manners is important and whilst in my classroom, I will always demand that my students have lovely manners that they use with me, with their classmates and anyone else they have contact with from the school.

I think that nice manners and being polite always get your further in life than being gruff, rude and impolite.

So, thank you for reading my post and please do come back and read it again in the future.

Take care and enjoy the last part of the weekend.

Miss Hayley
PoGo Communications