Received: from mail.alhambra.k12.ca.us (mail.alhambra.k12.ca.us [156.3.74.2]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id h26MTrP02694 for <nifl-esl@nifl.gov>; Thu, 6 Mar 2003 17:29:53 -0500 (EST) Message-id: <fc.000f70dd003382fc3b9aca008e65d5a1.338378@alhambra.k12.ca.us> Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 14:29:41 -0800 Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8769] Re: RE: NIFL's Policy To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov Cc: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov From: "Julie Whittemore" <whittemore_julie@alhambra.k12.ca.us> References: <5.0.0.25.0.20030306133624.009f69b0@mail.aracnet.com> In-Reply-To: <5.0.0.25.0.20030306133624.009f69b0@mail.aracnet.com> Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Status: O Content-Length: 2565 Lines: 46 I fear that courtesy is becoming a lost art, and the level of public discourse in this country is devolving to a shouting match, or "professional" wrestling. Maybe it is because we are physically separated from each other, and can then more easily demonize each other rather than dealing with each other face to face as human beings. I agree that curtesy is becoming a lost art in many cases. In our mothers' and grandmothers' day women had manners books on their shelves and taught manners to their children. Schools taught curtesy and churches taught the "golden rule". However, we now have busy working parents, teachers who (at least in California) are almost forced to teach nothing but the" three Rs" and many people who do not attend church frequently. We also have children exposed to a deluge of visual, audio and written media that seems to promote the idea that rudeness is funny, cute or somehow powerful. In addition, we now have a multicultural society rather than the idea of "a melting pot" and what some consider rude may be acceptable or at least unimportant in another culture. I say let's use this as a lesson for our students. Talk about what rules of curtesy exist in their culture. What kinds of manners do they regularly teach to thier own children? What behaviors have they seen or heard that they either do not understand or find offensive? In more advanced classes, with your principal's forknowledge and approval, you might bring in some examples of media that show rudeness (not profanity, just rudeness) and make fun of it. Ask the students how they would deal with their children watching or reading this. Would they censor in their own homes? Next step, you can go two ways. If you have lots of parents, you can get into discussions of how they teach their opwn values when outside society may be forcing something else on them and their families. OR, you can take the censorship in your own home aspect and talk about censorship in the media or by government. You can discuss how our present situation and war on terrorism has led to laws that encrouch on the bill of rights and privacy rights. You can talk about "netiquette" and even use this whole situation with the list serve as a real life example. If nothing else, it's a way to take this looooong discussion about the listserve and censorship back to talking about what we all signed up to get; discussion on how to teach our students. Thank you, Julie Whittemore Resource Teache,r 5% Distance Learning Program Alhambra School District, Adult Education Division
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