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The Forum > General Discussion > Should Manners be Taught in Schools?

Should Manners be Taught in Schools?

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I have just come across an article taken from
The Age, written in 2006 in which then Federal
Education Minister Julie Bishop stated that
schools have a duty to champion good manners,
tolerance, and respect.

Ms Bishop spoke of her days -
when the National Anthem was played at school
assemblies and values were taught in schools.

I thought this would be an interesting topic
for discussion and relevant to the way students
are educated today. I agree with Ms Bishop and
her criticism that students
were being taught all about their rights to the
detriment of their responsibilities.

Ms Bishop claimed that
teaching good manners would lead to calmer classrooms
and good relationships between teachers and students.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/teach-manners-in-schools-minister/2006/11/06/1162661617864.html

What do you think?
Posted by Foxy, Saturday, 17 January 2015 4:45:39 PM
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Of course good manners should be promoted and upheld in the school situation - as they should in all institutions.

However, to me the foundational learning environment for manners is the home where first interactions take place. It certainly not difficult to instil basic respect and values starting in the early years - and yes they should be reinforced wherever a child attends.

Just as an aside, my boy who's home educated obviously doesn't have to stand at school assemblies for the National Anthem (although his older sister did when she attended school)- yet he has an almost innate respect for such things - and on the occasions where we've attended ANZAC commemorations and the like, he's treated it as the solemn occasion it is - no prompting, he just knew from the example he saw around him.
Posted by Poirot, Saturday, 17 January 2015 8:10:07 PM
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The answer is 'Yes', but I hesitate because as soon as we say that something "should", the government turns it into a law.

I am personally grateful for the manners I learned in school, especially because we had an extraordinary teacher who knew well how to impart and explain them, but what constitutes proper manners can become controversial, so this should be at the discretion of each school and its availability of great and respectful teachers rather than be dictated from above. The worst manners can be acquired when teachers attempt to teach respect while being disrespectful themselves.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Sunday, 18 January 2015 1:10:10 AM
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Manners should be taught at home, and then expanded upon at school.

However, Kids can be taught all the best manners in the world at home, but these can only really be tested when the kids are away from their home environment and interact with other kids and adults out in the wide world.

How else will they learn the effects of bad manners in a social or formal learning situation if they never experience bad manners around them?

So yes, manners should be taught at school as well as at home.
Posted by Suseonline, Sunday, 18 January 2015 2:31:17 AM
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Giving schools --dominated as they by PC culture --the license to teach manners will just provide lefty teachers with another avenue of indoctrination. Given time i can envisage a whole raft of new manners embedding themselves ...like it is not right to eat pork since it offends some other students sensibilities.

And this has a nice pertinence:
<<Ms Bishop spoke of her days -
when the National Anthem was played at school
assemblies and values were taught in schools.>>

Nowadays there are schools where students think it proper manners not stand for the national anthem...and their teachers permit it.
Posted by SPQR, Sunday, 18 January 2015 6:50:53 AM
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The last thing we need is for something else to be added to the curriculum in schools. As it is, all too many teachers & schools are failing in their real job, to teach the 3 Rs.

Until we see kids coming out of schools literate in both English & math, it would be a better idea to weed out some of the garbage they do try to teach.

Now we could try to practice manners in schools, but that would require a major rethink in dress standards for teachers to start with. I have been amazed at what some teachers, yes particularly some ladies, consider appropriate dress standard to go to work, in this case school.

At a P&C meeting a while back a few mothers, not regular P&C attenders, came to complain about teacher dress standards. They said they were having trouble getting their daughters to wear school uniforms, when many of the younger lady teachers were wearing jeans & similar sporty clothes, more suitable for a picnic, than a day at work. Their daughters wanted to wear their jeans too.

I had a little trouble containing my mirth, until a few days later I looks around when at the high school, & by far the worst & most inappropriately dressed were some of the younger lady teachers, not the kids.

Setting a standard for manners would be hard, when the teachers have no respect for standards.
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 18 January 2015 10:55:34 AM
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