A Study on Courtesy by Carmen K.

As a student in middle school, it is rare to hear the words please or thank you. It has become apparent that teenagers of modern times don’t believe etiquette is an essential aspect of everyday life.
I have attempted to count the number of polite words or phrases being used in a middle school and was shocked by the outcome.
During the entire day, I would go out of my way to receive the reply from a compliment, holding the door, or getting bumped into. The outcome was three instances where the known polite words or phrases (please, thank you, you’re welcome, excuse me) were used.

I purposely was trying to do everything in my power to receive these phrases of courtesy, but was unfortunately not given them. I complimented my teachers in several periods, but was shocked to not even be recognized to have said anything that should be responded to.

These teachers must be accepting manners displayed by the students and after many years of teaching have tolerated and began to show the same decency.

During the lunch passing period, I held one of the double doors open that lead to the hallway that was the direction to the cafeteria. In my efforts to receive some form of statistics, I continued to hold the door for over five minutes.

Within that time span, there was only two “Thank you”s said and about sixty-five teenagers walking through. It was obvious that the door wasn’t light and I certainly desired to go to lunch as much as the next person, but no one even made the slightest gesture as to take the door themselves.

I can’t help but wonder if this form of behavior will only get better or worse. The last courtesy word was spoken because a young girl was in desperate need of the restroom.

She finally said, “PLEASE” because she realized that was the only edict she’d be successful in using to reach her requested destination.

The question that I ponder about is, will teenagers be successful in the future having no common knowledge of how to be courteous or will they fail to get jobs and have prosperous lives? Should etiquette be taught in schools or is it the responsibility of the parents or even use common sense?

With the challenges being faced by the United States as a whole, maybe there isn’t any time to spare on teaching our youth manners and we have just accepted this form of attitude about being polite.

There is option to rely on the future to bring common etiquette, but without the past giving the future a push to educate their children with courtesy, will there ever be the proper assumption that manners matter?