Bad Behaviour
No no, this isn't anything about Tara Reid or Colin Farrell--the title of this post means what it says: Bad Behaviour, from teenagers (children?--I'm talking mental age here). All part of my observations at a "Literature Seminar" I attended today.
Preliminaries (since I've never told you very much about myself, ever):
I take Literature as a subject in my secondary school and one of the books I'm studying is the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I personally like literature (the subject and the noun) and it's very important to me that I do well in it this year as I'm taking my O'Levels.
The seminar is the sort of "thing" where (groups of) students from different schools (which are studying the same book) come over and do a presentation of their "takes" on the subject and the audience are a couple of teachers and many (a few hundred perhaps) students from all the schools invited. I thought that it might be useful and so I jumped at the chance to attend.
Well...
___________________________________________________________________
The seminar did not provide any really useful information. Of the three "talks" (because I can't call them lectures) I attended, I asked questions at the end of the first two and I didn't at the end of the third and last as the kids were so eager to close shop and leave that they were just like: Any questions?...Nobody's got questions...right? OK, let's leave for the closing speech and just GO--for about thirty seconds. And I was still sifting among my papers for the questions I wrote down less than five minutes into their presentation. By the time I finally got hold of it, everyone was standing up to leave and so I got up and left too. I got a bit shirty asking my other two questions and I knew that I sounded really peevish, but I couldn't help it as I thought that the people presenting their stuff obviously had not thought to make the right connections and think really deeply about things. But now, I know that it was pretty rude of me to act like that, so, to any of them out there: I'm very sorry. I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable. And I also hope that I didn't seem odd or anything. Heaven knows what everyone thought of me there (for reasons I shan't discuss now), but it's over and I'm not going to see any of them again, so it doesn't really matter at all.
Now that (above) was really all stuffing and an introduction. Here's the juice:
Whenever the presenters paused, or ended their presentations, and especially when someone asked a question, everyone in the audience started tittering. I know we've all done that at one point of time or another, and maybe some of us still do, butI feel that it's really rude. People should know when they should talk and when to keep quiet, like when someone is trying to address them. Most of the students were terribly unappreciative of the effort the host school (students) and the presenters had made, and they obviously couldn't wait to talk as they obviously had something more important to say. Most people think they're really smart, most people think that other people aren't worth listening to, and thus they don't learn anything. Plus, we should be kind to the presenters: it's very stressful to be standing in front of a crowd of people who are supposed to be paying attention but are instead, so self-absorbed that they're ignoring one. And it's frustrating too.
During the closing speech (which was a rather odd, ironic one), some of the kids (not from the host school obviously) were practically jeering. The speech went this way: ...and now all good things must come to an end..., referring to the seminar and they just yelled: What! This is a good thing! It's astounding how moronically brave and rude they were.
After the seminar ended, we filed out of the room/hall by a single corridor, and so all of us passed by this rubbish bin, and sticking out of it was the file and notes given out to us by the host school. Needless to say, all the girls (from that school) were really insulted. Whoever threw it in had an utter lack of appreciation, tact, as well as consideration for the environment. That file was a plastic file, plastics are non-biodegradable, and so, the enitre sheaf is going to end up at some landfill and cause more pollution. There are so many constructive things he/she could have done with that file and the notes if he didn't want it. He could have given it away to a classmate, he could have handed it back, he could have kept the file to keep his other stuff in and put the paper in a recycling bin. Or else, he could have just pushed the thing right into the bin so that nobody would see it. But he didn't.
I know that I'm no saint myself, but at least I try to be civil and considerate. These people just make others miserable.
Preliminaries (since I've never told you very much about myself, ever):
I take Literature as a subject in my secondary school and one of the books I'm studying is the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I personally like literature (the subject and the noun) and it's very important to me that I do well in it this year as I'm taking my O'Levels.
The seminar is the sort of "thing" where (groups of) students from different schools (which are studying the same book) come over and do a presentation of their "takes" on the subject and the audience are a couple of teachers and many (a few hundred perhaps) students from all the schools invited. I thought that it might be useful and so I jumped at the chance to attend.
Well...
___________________________________________________________________
The seminar did not provide any really useful information. Of the three "talks" (because I can't call them lectures) I attended, I asked questions at the end of the first two and I didn't at the end of the third and last as the kids were so eager to close shop and leave that they were just like: Any questions?...Nobody's got questions...right? OK, let's leave for the closing speech and just GO--for about thirty seconds. And I was still sifting among my papers for the questions I wrote down less than five minutes into their presentation. By the time I finally got hold of it, everyone was standing up to leave and so I got up and left too. I got a bit shirty asking my other two questions and I knew that I sounded really peevish, but I couldn't help it as I thought that the people presenting their stuff obviously had not thought to make the right connections and think really deeply about things. But now, I know that it was pretty rude of me to act like that, so, to any of them out there: I'm very sorry. I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable. And I also hope that I didn't seem odd or anything. Heaven knows what everyone thought of me there (for reasons I shan't discuss now), but it's over and I'm not going to see any of them again, so it doesn't really matter at all.
Now that (above) was really all stuffing and an introduction. Here's the juice:
Whenever the presenters paused, or ended their presentations, and especially when someone asked a question, everyone in the audience started tittering. I know we've all done that at one point of time or another, and maybe some of us still do, butI feel that it's really rude. People should know when they should talk and when to keep quiet, like when someone is trying to address them. Most of the students were terribly unappreciative of the effort the host school (students) and the presenters had made, and they obviously couldn't wait to talk as they obviously had something more important to say. Most people think they're really smart, most people think that other people aren't worth listening to, and thus they don't learn anything. Plus, we should be kind to the presenters: it's very stressful to be standing in front of a crowd of people who are supposed to be paying attention but are instead, so self-absorbed that they're ignoring one. And it's frustrating too.
During the closing speech (which was a rather odd, ironic one), some of the kids (not from the host school obviously) were practically jeering. The speech went this way: ...and now all good things must come to an end..., referring to the seminar and they just yelled: What! This is a good thing! It's astounding how moronically brave and rude they were.
After the seminar ended, we filed out of the room/hall by a single corridor, and so all of us passed by this rubbish bin, and sticking out of it was the file and notes given out to us by the host school. Needless to say, all the girls (from that school) were really insulted. Whoever threw it in had an utter lack of appreciation, tact, as well as consideration for the environment. That file was a plastic file, plastics are non-biodegradable, and so, the enitre sheaf is going to end up at some landfill and cause more pollution. There are so many constructive things he/she could have done with that file and the notes if he didn't want it. He could have given it away to a classmate, he could have handed it back, he could have kept the file to keep his other stuff in and put the paper in a recycling bin. Or else, he could have just pushed the thing right into the bin so that nobody would see it. But he didn't.
I know that I'm no saint myself, but at least I try to be civil and considerate. These people just make others miserable.
posted by fairypenguin at 12:37 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home