Sounded pretty standard at first. That is, until I heard the types of rules he was talking about. These were rules like "If you don't say thank you within 30 seconds, I'm taking it back." Or, "If someone asks you a question, you need to answer it and then ask a question yourself." That last one has always been one of my pet peeves with children.
Here are some of the ideas that he says are essential for kids to learn:
- Make eye contact
- Respect other; ideas and opinions
- Do not save seats
- Say thank you within three seconds of receiving something
- When you win, do not brag; when you lose, do not show anger
- Do your homework each and every night without fail
- Do not talk in a movie theater
- Be the best person you can be
- Always be honest
- If you are asked a question in conversation, ask a question in return
- Perform random acts of kindness
- Learn the names of all the teachers in the school and greet them
- If someone bumps into you, even if it was not your fault , say excuse me
- Stand up for what you believe in
To tell you the truth, I had felt fed up with students' general lack of manners for quite awhile. For some reason, it hadn't occurred to me to teach good manner explicitly. I figured this was something that parents would teach their children at home. Also, there's such a big push towards standards and test scores in my district that I didn't see how I could get away with teaching manners and common courtesies.
