What Ever Happened to Good Manners?

What do Kanye West, Serena Williams, and Representative Joe Wilson have in common? USA Today ran an article this week on the demise of manners, "What Happened to Civility?" and we read about the social blunders highlighted by these three celebrities. Here's a link to the West event. You may be thinking, so what do we care, but in our classroom opinionaire, a majority of you answered "no" to the statement, "I feel like my classmates care about me!" Oh...maybe it's worth looking at how our manners affect the classroom atmosphere.

We viewed a video clip (included below) about manners published in 1953; we charted how those same customs or manners would translate to the year 2009. We will be studying about manners online, a current area of concern and one that was referred to in the article we read this week. As to the picture above, Japanese culture is known for its courteous nature.

When I lived in Japan, I was fascinated by many of the customs and manners.

• People take their shoes off when they enter a home;


• People bow instead of shaking hands;


• Soft, warm cloths are brought to the dinner table before dining;


• Gifts are given to guests who attend a wedding or funeral;


• People often practice meditation and visualization before partaking in an activity.

The last item was often referred to as shadowing. Once in a department store china department, I saw people "shadow sipping" (pretend sipping) from imaginary tea cups to see if they liked it. I saw others shadow swinging imaginary golf clubs or baseball bats. The practice, it seems, was to imagine in one's mind or visualize the event to experience what it might be like without really doing the activity. In such an overcrowded country (by my standards), it amazed me how many people had the abiltiy to "go within."

This might seem like a stretch, but I imagine the same activity might be worthwhile on our blogging. You've now been reading my posts every day, and you know, regardless of your own personal experience, what a blog post might look like...pictures, links, comments, and so forth. It's time to imagine how you want to be perceived by others, how your posts might look, how it feels to comment and to receive comments.

Soon we'll try our hand at "shadow blogging," blogging on paper instead of online. It should be fun. If you are absent, we'll have to get together and work out this activity for you!

Sayonara!