Welcome back, readers. I hope all is well with you. Tonight I will be going on a rant. I warn you now of this, so you may have a choice. Here goes:
Today was a hard day. I pride myself on my patience, but what destroys the solid wall I have built is being disrespected. There were two incidents. The first was on the wrap line in AU's cafeteria. As many would know, trying to grab lunch during rush hour is difficult. Everyone on all the lines resemble the zombies from "The Walking Dead," when Rick first meets Glenn. I maneuver around one girl and lightly tap her bag by accident. It was so light that a regular person would disregard it, but of course the girl has to say, "Excuse me," to her friend as if I wouldn't hear it. Yes, it's my fault for tapping her, but she didn't have to belittle my existence. I apologized and thought life could move on, but she had to talk about me right in front of me in a hushed voice to her friend. Note: A hushed voice is audible from a foot away. I removed myself from the situation, because I was livid. After that occurrence, I started wondering, "Why?" Why can't people be kind or have a little bit of patience? Is it a genetic trait or is it learned? Is it possible that people just don't care? I was raised as a Catholic, but am not that rigid with the practice. Yet I have always believed that one should treat others as one wish to be treated. Even in school it was reinforced, we should all treat each other as equals. I just couldn't wrap my head around it.
Earlier tonight I was in the holy land, Barnes and Nobles. I treated myself to a couple of books and went to the line having forgotten what happened earlier today. There was a father and son ahead of me kind of on the line, but not really. I couldn't distinguish if they were or not, so I believed they were, because I didn't want any confusion later, such as people accusing me of jumping the line. So, I waited my turn. One cashier became available and beckoned the people forward. I was then distracted by those tantalizing items they always keep near the cashier. It hadn't even been 5 seconds before I had the gentleman, not really that gentle, prod me forward with his words. He alerted me that there was a cashier open and I expressed to him my confusion and walked towards the teller. He did not stop there. He then said in a trite tone, "Jeez, how many times do they have to call you," and then mumbled as he went to a different teller. My vision was covered in red spots. I then told him, "I didn't know if they were going or not. There is no reason to be disrespectful." He ignored me, I bought my books, and he bought his. I then left in a worse mood than before.
Why is it that people disrespect others so easily for such minor things? Is it that parents and teachers don't teach people manners at an early age? I want to teach my students that we should all be respectful towards one another regardless of our gender, race, or religion. Little things similar to those mentioned before should not throw us over the edge. I'm sure that the man in the bookstore thought I was a stupid teen, because I was still wearing my gym clothes. Why does that matter? I am a lady and want to be respected as such. Do teens deserve less respect? I do not believe so. We are all equals; we are all human.
So tell me do you think I just had a bad day or was it a lack of interest, lack of education or just plain rude?
Good-night and stay safe. :)
Today was a hard day. I pride myself on my patience, but what destroys the solid wall I have built is being disrespected. There were two incidents. The first was on the wrap line in AU's cafeteria. As many would know, trying to grab lunch during rush hour is difficult. Everyone on all the lines resemble the zombies from "The Walking Dead," when Rick first meets Glenn. I maneuver around one girl and lightly tap her bag by accident. It was so light that a regular person would disregard it, but of course the girl has to say, "Excuse me," to her friend as if I wouldn't hear it. Yes, it's my fault for tapping her, but she didn't have to belittle my existence. I apologized and thought life could move on, but she had to talk about me right in front of me in a hushed voice to her friend. Note: A hushed voice is audible from a foot away. I removed myself from the situation, because I was livid. After that occurrence, I started wondering, "Why?" Why can't people be kind or have a little bit of patience? Is it a genetic trait or is it learned? Is it possible that people just don't care? I was raised as a Catholic, but am not that rigid with the practice. Yet I have always believed that one should treat others as one wish to be treated. Even in school it was reinforced, we should all treat each other as equals. I just couldn't wrap my head around it.
Earlier tonight I was in the holy land, Barnes and Nobles. I treated myself to a couple of books and went to the line having forgotten what happened earlier today. There was a father and son ahead of me kind of on the line, but not really. I couldn't distinguish if they were or not, so I believed they were, because I didn't want any confusion later, such as people accusing me of jumping the line. So, I waited my turn. One cashier became available and beckoned the people forward. I was then distracted by those tantalizing items they always keep near the cashier. It hadn't even been 5 seconds before I had the gentleman, not really that gentle, prod me forward with his words. He alerted me that there was a cashier open and I expressed to him my confusion and walked towards the teller. He did not stop there. He then said in a trite tone, "Jeez, how many times do they have to call you," and then mumbled as he went to a different teller. My vision was covered in red spots. I then told him, "I didn't know if they were going or not. There is no reason to be disrespectful." He ignored me, I bought my books, and he bought his. I then left in a worse mood than before.
Why is it that people disrespect others so easily for such minor things? Is it that parents and teachers don't teach people manners at an early age? I want to teach my students that we should all be respectful towards one another regardless of our gender, race, or religion. Little things similar to those mentioned before should not throw us over the edge. I'm sure that the man in the bookstore thought I was a stupid teen, because I was still wearing my gym clothes. Why does that matter? I am a lady and want to be respected as such. Do teens deserve less respect? I do not believe so. We are all equals; we are all human.
So tell me do you think I just had a bad day or was it a lack of interest, lack of education or just plain rude?
Good-night and stay safe. :)
Dear Maribel,
ReplyDeleteIf it one thing I'm am sad to have learned, it's that not everyone is equal. I mean we are all born equal, and have somewhat equal potential, but not all of us remain equal. At some point, some people make the conscious decision to become assholes. Now I'm not saying this to be one myself, but people who lack patience, common courtesy, and openhandedness are not equal decent human beings. For those who doubt me, drive on the Southern State Parkway between the hours of 3pm-5pm; spill a drink on someone in a bar, or just offer somebody a harmless compliment. The assholes seem to always show themselves.
I am all about education. I think everybody has a potential to learn and become upstanding human beings: but some just don't, and people need to accept that. Being educators is not an excuse to pardon the American Asshole's behavior; they really need to be put in their places from time to time. I all about doing so. I'm glad you told that asshole at Barnes and Noble off. To let him get away with speaking that way to people is ridiculous. More people should speak out against the asshole, since trying to better educate them seems to be in vain. I think some major place-putting is in order. I think about how many assholes seem to go unchecked in my own, daily life. They act out, and I usually go home and cyber-bully them, but say nothing. This must change (despite my fondness of cyber-bullying people who deserve it). People need to be held accountable for their behavior-- end of story.
For my response blog entry, I chose your blog. Here is my response:
ReplyDeleteI completely understand Maribel's frustrations with people who act unnecessarily rude and obnoxious. Although her post was categorized as more of a personal rant, I believe that it does address issues that we see everyday in school. Who is responsible for teaching our young people how to conduct themselves in a respectful, professional manner? Hopefully this is something being taught by families through dialogue and modeling, but it should also be reinforced in school. Being courteous and respectful to others can open up a lot of doors in life. Last Thursday, I was working with my cooperating teacher (let's call her Ms. X) and she had a difficult encounter with a student. Ms. X stopped a student in the hallway to remind her to act respectfully to her co-teacher, Ms. Y. Apparently this touched a nerve with the student, because she burst out yelling in the hallway. Ms. X calmly and respectfully asked the student to please lower her voice and to allow her to finish talking. Each time Ms. X would try and explain her thoughts to the student, the student would cut her off and continue yelling that she didn't do anything wrong. Finally Ms. X asked the student to accompany her to the department office, where she asked the student to sit down and talk. Instead of focusing on her behavior in the classroom, Ms. X addressed the behavior that she just experienced. They had a long talk about respectful communication and how Ms. X was sincerely interested in what the student thought and what she had to say about the situation, but she couldn't engage in a constructive conversation with constant interruptions and yelling. Ms. X talked about maintaining a calm tone, taking turns speaking, and maintaining eye contact during a discussion. Ms. X explained that everyone should exhibit the amount of respect that they would like to receive in turn. The student actually had some really good things to say about her interactions with the co-teacher Ms. Y and her thoughts on class, but we would have never known that if the conversation continued and evolved into a yelling match. This just goes to show that a lot of what we teach in school won't necessarily be our content areas, but general life skills needed for success.