Beijing Improving Its Manners for Olympics
One hundred and seventy-five days from now on August 8, 2008, the world will turn its attention to Beijing, China for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, and Beijing wants to make sure that it is ready for the attention.
Beijing is working hard to promote a positive image for its city. In fact, the government has created a campaign to teach the citizens of Beijing how to be nicer and more “civil.”
Beijing officials have identified three bad habits that they want to eliminate: (1) spitting in public; (2) cutting in line ahead of another person; and (3) littering.
The city has produced pamphlets describing good behavior and has even had practice days for the citizens. Citizens who are caught spitting, cutting or littering at a sporting event are removed from the event.
The city has also established a “civic index” that is used to rate the behavior of the citizens. The index was established in 2006 with annual goals for each behavior.
The 2007 results are now in and Beijing is pleased to announce that the behavior of its citizens is getting better. Only 2.5 percent of the people in Beijing were seen spitting in public. That percentage is down from 4.9 last year. Cutting in line dropped by 1.5 percent down from 6 percent the year before and littering fell to 2.9 percent from 5.3 percent.
The goal for the city is to have a perfect score of 80 on the “civic index” by the time the games begin. The school now stands at 73.4 percent, the highest it has been since the campaign started.
Source: PBS Newshour
Question:
What four bad behaviors do you think your school should try to eliminate? Do you think a campaign like the one used in Beijing would work in your school?
Beijing is working hard to promote a positive image for its city. In fact, the government has created a campaign to teach the citizens of Beijing how to be nicer and more “civil.”
Beijing officials have identified three bad habits that they want to eliminate: (1) spitting in public; (2) cutting in line ahead of another person; and (3) littering.
The city has produced pamphlets describing good behavior and has even had practice days for the citizens. Citizens who are caught spitting, cutting or littering at a sporting event are removed from the event.
The city has also established a “civic index” that is used to rate the behavior of the citizens. The index was established in 2006 with annual goals for each behavior.
The 2007 results are now in and Beijing is pleased to announce that the behavior of its citizens is getting better. Only 2.5 percent of the people in Beijing were seen spitting in public. That percentage is down from 4.9 last year. Cutting in line dropped by 1.5 percent down from 6 percent the year before and littering fell to 2.9 percent from 5.3 percent.
The goal for the city is to have a perfect score of 80 on the “civic index” by the time the games begin. The school now stands at 73.4 percent, the highest it has been since the campaign started.
Source: PBS Newshour
Question:
What four bad behaviors do you think your school should try to eliminate? Do you think a campaign like the one used in Beijing would work in your school?
5 Comments:
I think Fox Meadow would be better if we didn't do these things: littering, not listening to aids, bringing disposable bags, and sliding down banisters. these things all have everyone doing them. I think the school would be about 70% better without hem
We think that the first and foremost manner that our school has to improve on is the public so-called "sliding down the railings." We think that our school should establish this rule because every year kids hurt other people and themselves by sliding down the ralings and it is becoming a big problem. The second problem our school should eliminate is littering. Every day of the school year we walk up and down the halls and find trash laid out on the floor. We think that the school should be clean and less polluted. The third problem is the bathooms. The boys bathrooms are a mess with people jumping and not flushing and throwing unnecessary objects into the toilets. People think that it is funny but it is just another way to make our school look bad. The fourth and last reason is the amount of paper we use each year. It is crazy! In this category we are very poor and we wish we could improve highly.
I think that we should stop pushing each other in line when everybody wants the same thing.
I think we should try to eliminate sliding down the railings on the staircase. We should also try stopping people bringing plastic or tin sheets to stop landfills from overflowing. Also we should stop cutting in line because you were not there first.And last but not least stop putting things in the toliets and paper towels on the floor and I think Beijings approach is going pretty well according to the percentages
I think a campaign like the one used in Beijing would work in school because a lot of people:
*Slide down the railings.
*Aren't quiet when teachers tell them to.
*Bus monitors(fifth graders) sometimes chew gum on the bus.
*Bus monitors sometimes stand up when the bus is moving.
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