Where have peoples manners gone to ?

[Garp]

Originally Posted by cleanbluesky/ Reuters

I've always thought the influx of foreigners have done little to aid manners, combined with the perpetuation of chavs. Foreign people, particularly those who come from poor economic climates, tend to have learned manners that are far more confrontational than your average middle-class and even working class people.

If anything I've found it to be the complete opposite. Most of the foreigners I've dealt with have been far better mannered than us Brits, which is quite appalling for what a country once infamous for its "proper" and unfailingly courteous behaviour. In particular I've found the Hungarians to be the most polite.
Blaming the foreigners is a good way to hide from the truth: Britain has gone appallingly down hill, and the fault lies at home, not elsewhere. It's easy to pick on outside targets, but if we were as good as we'd ever be, foreigners would be the embarrassed ones.

Originally Posted by Pebs

I think standards of manners in general have fallen, and this can only be down to parents I think. I'm very strict with the girls and their 'please' and 'thanks you's, if things really seem to start slipping as they invariably do occasionally I become a total manner nazi. I've put dinners in front of them and then 10 seconds later taken them away again lol.

An interesting point that came up in discussions this weekend was that it's not just deeds that need correcting, but attitudes behind the deeds. It's something I never really thought about much before now, but thinking on it I've realised just how much my parents drummed into me why I should be apologetic in certain circumstances or whatever I was supposed to be that I wasn't.
Like with your kids, if I failed to say "Thank You" when served at the table, the food would be taken away and I would get told in no uncertain terms about the hard work that had gone into producing that meal, until I was appropriately thankful, and very aware of why I should be.

This seems to be something that just doesn't happen these days. Schools can do only so much to correct attitude, that has to come from the home and the parents.

Originally Posted by NokkonWud

I do often feel the only person out there with manners. I've never not held a door open for someone, but it seems no one does for me any more.

I tend to feel that way at times too. It always used to surprise students at the 6th form where I was working when I held open doors for them, and the same with teachers too. Most of them would actually thank me though. In some cases certain teachers never would (I was only a lowly 'support staff' member as far as they were concerned, probably about one rank above mud, despite how important our roles were to their day-to-day teaching), and I'd always make the point of saying "Thank you for letting me hold the door for you." It's great when you get to do that with them in front of students too. They soon learn.
What really did cheese me off at the college was the number of times I was left to struggle with a door whilst lugging around projectors, projection screens, TVs, the PA pod, PCs, monitors, printers and the like. All were clumsy big things and awkward at the best of times to lug around, without having to open doors. I could go to a door right beside a student standing chatting, they might even watch me struggling with the door, but they'd often not bother to help. The teachers were worst at that though, by a long stretch.