So a couple of college kids who made fools of themselves by behaving like insensitive twits on camera (in a documentary-style feature film, no less) now complain that they were set up and would never have behaved like that if they had known they would be seen in the United States.
Well, here’s a piece of advice from my great-grandmother:Â if you always mind your manners, you need never be embarassed.
Nor, I might add, need your parents be embarrassed…
Coming on the heels of this year’s election debacles, I can’t help but feel that these young people are merely demonstrating the lessons they have learned from their elders — how can youth learn how to treat others with respect and kindness when all around their role models are perfect examples of how not to behave?
*sigh* I find that simple lessons on what used to be called social graces work for helping my children understand the difference between comedy and put-downs… but you have to start young, and you must model the behavior and language you want them to acquire. Though I have found my children’s friends can modify their normal words and actions when in my presence, when I observe them in other places they have reverted, and taken my own children with them.
Our children do not live in a vacuum… and they do learn from others. I hope that the lessons from home will eventually turn out to be stronger than the influence of ill-mannered, vulgar, self-centered hooligans.
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