Stand up for your elders as a mark of respect

[Galvanise]

David Cameron has said that children should (stand) and it reminded me of a custom in middle east where children will stand when their father walks into the room as a mark of affection and respect. As the children reach adulthood they will start standing for both mum and dad. (I think it happens in the chinese and japanese culture too, but am not sure)

Is this such a bad thing to adopt here too?

Generally I'm on the side of respect is earned. You should be polite to people generally, unless there is cause not to be. But respect to me is a step up from neutral and I don't start at that point.

I do think there is a need for a degree of automatic respect for certain positions. Respecting the position of teacher is generally necessary for the class to get the most out of the lesson. Regardless of how good the teacher is, or how worthy of respect as an individual, respect for the position allows everyone in the class to get as much as possible out of it. That doesn't mean pupils have to think the teacher is a good person, or right, or even good at what they do, it just means they need to acknowledge that playing up is unfair on everyone else in the class and won't help them learn. But I still think standing up is pointless as a sign of respect!

Respect is earned. And a teacher has earned by training to be a teacher and being a teacher and teaching.

Ariel A teacher who was bad at teaching (and I have had a few) would not earn my respect. But I would still try to be respectful of their role as a teacher. I think there is a difference. Saying a teacher earns respect simply by being trained doesn't seem any different to me from saying older people earn respect by being older.

I think David Cameron should keep putting forward excellent suggestions like this. It really is a very clever way of easing himself out of the PM's seat at the next election.