Add Respect to the 3 Rs + 3 Cs
by Mark Schwed, COX NEWS SERVICE
Columbus Dispatch
When 20-year-old Prince Harry sparked world outrage by donning a Nazi swastika for a costume party, parents everywhere winced.
After all, if the residents of Buckingham Palace, where appearance is everything and protocol is an institutional obsession, can’t teach their young how to behave in public, who can?
Parents can, experts say, but it’s not easy. By the time children crawl out of their cribs, they are assaulted by a potpourri of profanity and vulgarity.
Is it any wonder that the queen of England can’t compete with Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg and the self-consumed young adults on The Real World when it comes to influencing the behavior of children?
"Begin when the child pops out of the womb," says Corinne Gregory, founder of the Polite Child (www.politechild.com), which works with schools across America to teach children about proper behavior.
Recent studies suggest that teachers spend up to 40 percent of their time in the classroom on discipline issues, that 43 percent of public school teachers spend more time on managing class behavior than teaching, and that 30 percent of teachers know a colleague who quit the profession because of discipline problems.
"If you’re losing 20, 30, 40 percent of your day to discipline issues, I don’t care how much money you throw at these kids, you cannot teach them. Everyone suffers," Gregory says.
But if they are taught what she calls "the fourth R — respect" and "the three C’s — care, compassion and courtesy," most discipline problems will disappear and more time will be spent on studies.
"The biggest thing we can do to secure the future of our children is to give them the necessary social skills that will help them survive," Gregory says. "I don’t think there’s anything more important to do."
Consider yourself your children’s master teacher, charged with instilling in them character-building basics such as respect for themselves and others, integrity, honesty and responsibility.
Good manners, which are nothing more than being polite and considerate of others, are the foundation of such virtues. Experts say that if people are schooled in manners, they can handle any social situation with grace.
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