Not Standing for Unearned Respect

I am a 4.0 student. I am not a student who disrupts class. I am an Eagle Scout. Every two months I and others go and tap-dance for those in convalescent homes. My grandparents were in Japanese prisoner of war camps in Indonesia in World War II; my father graduated from the Naval Academy and served in the U.S. Navy.

Despite who I am, members of the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees have decided I need to be taught to respect my elders. They have proposed a program titled “Stand In Respect,” which encourages students to stand whenever an adult enters the room and address them as “sir” or “ma’am.”

I do not understand the reasoning behind a policy that assumes that all adults are worthy of respect just by factor of their age. By forcing a display of respect for school staff, the board is essentially devaluing the concept of respect. If all adults are shown respect in this manner, how do we express genuine respect when we feel it? And why is standing the only way to show respect?

This program implies that all adults are worthy of our respect. While we respect most adults, there are some who we should not. Are veterans given the same honor as traitors? The idea that I should indiscriminately show respect to any person over the age of 18, without first knowing the person or their principles, violates everything I’ve learned about respect.

Respect must be earned.

This program is insulting. It implies that we have no respect for our teachers, and that isn’t true. We would learn nothing from them if we did not have respect for them.

The belief that teenagers have no respect for those who have gone before us is the greatest stereotype plaguing my generation and this program of “Stand In Respect” is the fruit of this stereotype.