The good word this week is “respect.”

From time to time, I’ve read about efforts and programs in our schools which address issues of concern at the moment. I think the most recent belabored issue is “diversity.” Classes are held, workshops presented and seminars announced, all in an attempt to persuade people to embrace diversity. I haven’t figured out yet whether diversity in these various arenas means different cultures, colors, religions or gender. I hope that very soon, the same attention and concern will be directed toward bringing back good manners and respect.

It’s a sure sign of getting old, when one can actually remember being taught in public school lessons about manners and respect. Right along with those boring penmanship practices, we learned manners. Most of us got this message at home, too.

I hope that a brief encounter at the public library this past week was a fluke, and not an example of the routine behavior of today’s youth.

Monthly, Windham’s public library staff hosts a tea. This is a wonderful thing to do and extremely pleasant. Last Monday, on my list of six or seven things to do after work ended for me at noon was a stop at the library for a cup of tea. As I entered the door, several young ladies were leaving. I knew I was in the right place when I heard them laughingly remark “did you see those old people?” Thankfully, they were out of hearing of most folks on that floor, and obviously I was invisible to them – me and my gray hair.

I know a lot of people will dismiss this thoughtless comment with “kids will be kids”. I didn’t, and don’t, see it that way.

The teacups were just elegant. I got to visit with many of my friends – several of whom were concerned about the future of Windham Health Council. “No young people are interested.”, was one comment I heard. We enjoyed a delicious cake and tea, and all in all, I had almost forgotten the remark at the entrance, until I went upstairs to see what new books were available.

Our library director was covering the first desk one comes to at the top of the stairs. Several teen-aged boys were – for lack of a better term, mouthing off about some wrong they felt had been done to them, with respect to spending time, making noise, in the library. In the back room where the genealogy books are stored, and where I was going, were several more youth tossing something back and forth, pushing and fooling around. Not a good time to sit down and do research.

I was appalled to hear the disrespectful tone and words hurled into the usually pleasant atmosphere of the library, and particularly toward our library director.

Apparently, the public library is a hangout after school, because there were kids throughout the parking lot, on the little bridge and generally rough-housing around. Driving out of the parking lot was reminiscent of the old days of skateboarders playing on the sidewalks in North Windham. Scary.

I trust that this was not an example of a typical afternoon at the library. And I hope that all the clichA?©s I’ve heard are true: They’ll outgrow it. They don’t really mean anything by it. They’re just being kids. My fear is that they won’t outgrow it, they do mean it and that they’ll become adults with the same disrespectful attitude. Road rage candidates.

In this day of enhanced communication methods, I doubt if penmanship classes would be of much use, but for darned sure, we need some lessons in respect and good manners – beginning before young people start school.