EDITORIAL - Values and attitudes,Chinese style

Twice when he was prime minister, a decade apart, P.J. Patterson took shots at promoting good behaviour and decency in Jamaica.

On both occasions, Mr Patterson's Values and Attitudes campaigns became the butt of derision, Mr Patterson himself was ridiculed and the programmes petered out.

Whatever may be the underlying cause of the failure by Mr Patterson to overcome the cynics and obtain a national "commitment to restore a sense of decency, exercise discipline and to conduct our affairs based on Christian principles of loving our neighbour as ourselves", Jamaica is the worse for it. The country's general disrespect for order, its high levels of crime and broad social dysfunction, we believe, prove the point.

This newspaper is reminded of the collapse of Mr Patterson's efforts because of developments in China this week.

According to Xinhua, China's national news agency, the country's education ministry has ordered that all children - at primary, middle and high schools - be taught etiquette and basic good manners in formal classes and as part of after-class activities.

Combating social dysfunction

Teaching courtesy, the ministry says, should combine the "traditional virtues of the Chinese nation" and the "salutary achievements of civilisations in other parts of the world".

So, at primary school, children must learn to use courteous language, respect for their elders, the observance of traffic rules, table etiquette and personal hygiene.

At middle school, the good-manners curriculum is broadened to the holding of polite conversation, courtesy to others, proper dress, as well as etiquette on the telephone and in email, text messages and other correspondence.

At high school, children will continue to have exercises in standing in orderly queues and holding polite one-on-one conversations.

China does not, we believe, face, on a per capita basis, anywhere near the social dysfunction that Jamaica does. But it is concerned about the rise in bad manners and uncultured behaviour in one of the world's oldest civilisations.

School-based campaign

Moreover, as an economic powerhouse, the authorities in Beijing are sensitive about their country's image to the rest of the world. For instance, in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China launched a campaign against spitting in the streets, a common practice that many other cultures would find offensive.

Or from the point of view of the Chinese, as articulated by the education ministry, this new campaign will help to enhance the country's "cultural soft power".

There is, perhaps, a message somewhere in Beijing's initiative for Jamaica.

Notably, there is no ridiculing of the idea. Moreover, the Chinese clearly believe that good behaviour and etiquette are virtuous underpinnings of their economic power. That is worthy of note to Jamaica, where, it seems, we would wish to elevate bad manners and indecency to being the national standard.

Maybe it is time for our Government to revisit the Values and Attitudes campaign - but this time anchoring it, as the Chinese are doing, in our schools.

Any such programme, of course, must go beyond the very basic lessons in civics that are now part of the curriculum.

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