Corn On the Cob

When did we start becoming ill-mannered and flat out royally snooty? The trend has a beginning that is incredibly vague. I cannot pin down the first time that I ignored my parents or improvised a teacher’s directions. Likewise, I cannot number the times I have blown off wisdom or council of superiors or the times I have witnessed it. Such motivation to do those things eludes my mind and for all reality’s sake I do not think it makes much sense to deviate from paths that we have not yet traveled. We are the young generation and we are inherently rude.

Common courtesy is only something people did in the black and white movies, right? Basic etiquette is just when boys bring out their second-mile efforts; show their careful manners, to impress the girl on the first date, true? It better be, but it’s not. No, sadly, these are only special occasions of propriety and not the required everyday homegrown politeness. The point I want to make is that manners are naturally instilled inside of us, but we do not seem the slightest bit bothered that we rarely make the daily applications of necessary courtesy. We are rude.

We are in the period of our life that we live independently together; rather we have almost everything we need provided at our fingertips, whether it be friends, food, or festivities, but the majority of our decisions are chosen strictly by us alone. The following trend was evident enough around the third quarter of last semester for me to have had the time to reflect back on it. I witnessed a trend of comfort over the last semester as fellow classmates and dorm mates, and myself included, grew increasingly comfortable with the ways they handled the day of school and the night of free time. Late nights, technically early mornings, began and grew a bit lengthier for some and the effects of acute laziness and sleep-induced procrastination were always quickly observed. Now, no one has any authority over how another should manage their time. But that isn’t the goal of this paper.

The problem I have is the utter disrespect this conveys to the professors and faculty that prepare extensively for lectures that, as I have discovered, are truly critical to a student’s accomplishment in the class. I entirely disagree that professors could care less about the students and that their teaching responsibility is only a requirement to allow them access to personal research. This is BYU and this university is, through legacy, different than any other national college, even BYU-Idaho.

The conduct with our professor is dismally stale sometimes and a despicable example of this is leaving class early. If you must show up at all just turn in your homework, relocate the doorway you just passed through, and reacquaint yourself with that experience again. And please do so quickly. On the other hand, by respectfully choosing to stay for the lecture, and, if you don’t mind, use your tuition for its intended purpose, make yourself at home as a scholar open to the teachings of the full, complete, allotted class time. By wisely and courteously doing so, I remind you that you have now bound yourself to an invisible contract that essentially glues your restless bottom to the chair’s seat for the duration of your professor’s intellectually stimulating and enlightening discourse. The subtle opposite applies for those that are too tired to pry their eyelids open. They too are required to respectfully heed the teacher.

And thank you for reading. I am out of time.