Respect: The Lost Art of Personal Conduct
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Posted by Karen Stephenson Sep 21, 2008 |
Where did we as a society go wrong? So many people tend to blame parents and on a pie graph I feel parents take half the pie. In my world, I’ve seen a plethora of parents (who were raised in the late 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s) who have adopted the attitude “no one will tell my kid what to do”. This regularly plays out in the school system.
Teachers have gallantly attempted to consequence students for not working in class, truancy or inappropriate behaviour by giving a detention. Unfortunately, they have been verbally accosted by irrational parents claiming their child is being picked on, or their child is incapable of wrong doing. The parent refuses to accept that their child is capable of inappropriate behaviour.
On the flipside, if I were a student in school today I would have difficulty respecting a teacher who is exerting authority dressed as though they just got out of bed. Gone are the days of an appropriate dress code for teachers.
Society seems to have adopted a mantra…..to heck with responsibilities because “my rights” come first. In my eyes, the two must be hand-in-hand. So what has happened to respect? The answer is simple, respect is lost when rights overpower responsibilities.
Our legal system is an extraordinary example of how our system is failing in teaching respect. I have sat in many youth courtrooms across Ontario. Teenagers charged with a crime have their day in court with pants hanging around their knees, inappropriate words on t-shirts and girls wearing, well, not wearing much at all really. Why are the judges and justices of the peace permitting this in their courtrooms? This is blatant disrespect for the system and the kids do it because the system is enabling them to do so. I have witnessed many times in which someone has not appeared in court when they were legally mandated to do so. But it is ok because they “hold the matter down”. This means, it’s ok, accused didn’t show up but we’ll see if they show up by the end of the day. So much for the responsibility of if you are to be there at 9:30 …. it means 9:30, not whenever you choose to get out of bed.
I can't speak about the American political system, but here in Canada when parliament is in session there are times in which our elected officials should be given a detention. The name calling and childish behaviour is not setting an example of how conflict resolution should look or how one should conduct themself in a mature manner. These elected officials are in a position of mentoring respect. Having a difference of opinion will always exist, but respect your opponent’s viewpoint.
Bottom line, we all need to take some responsibility in this dilemma. Some parents need to learn the art of parenting. Constantly using curse words, “smoking up” with your kids, failing to allow kids to experience natural consequences is not right. The entire system needs to tighten up with dress codes for those in positions of mentoring and dare I say it, tighten up the existing rules and regulations that have not yet eroded. Then and only then we will see the return of respect.
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