Grade 9 Behaviour Campaigns - Ashwin

What is my courtesy campaign about? – Cutting Lines! DIFFERENT TYPES OF CUTTING LINES!

Some people consider leaving a line and coming back a form of cutting. An example can be a person who is in line for buying a ticket for a movie who realizes that he might need a little more money from his mom/friends. Should the person leave the line, get the money and return to his place might be considered as cutting (even if it was known he was in the line before). One type of cutting is when one member of the family/friends “saves a place” for the other member’s specially when the wait is considered lengthy. This action is more acceptable then the other’s but is still considered a form of cutting by some people. In a place where time if important, such as the airport there is a type of cutting called “queue drift”. “Queue drift” happens when an impatient person treats the queue as a race in slow motion, using every movement in the line for cutting in front of people to attain the pole position. This starts from a funnel effect, where large amounts of

people try to squeeze into a small entrance where there is no formal queue. Queue drifters are usually less obvious then direct line cutters, while they are annoying to those who notice them but they usually manage to go unnoticed. A type of cutting seen many times at amusement parks is when the line area is nearly empty, some guests will walk through all the steel railings to proceed until the end of line, while others might just slip over/under them rather then walk through the entire network. If a person is not going over/under the rails, but rather is walking through the path to the line, and another person does bypass them (and, in doing so, reach the line before the other), it is sometimes considered cutting even though it did not actually take place in the line itself. Cutting is also present on roadways, especially at traffic light’s or toll booths. Driver’s who bypass traffic by waiting until the last possible moment before merging into the line are considered “cutters” and are frequent instigators of road rage.

Why is not a courteous behaviour? First of all you are breaking the rule. Cutting line’s can be very

annoying for the people behind you. It is also unfair to the people behind you because they have been waiting, and if you cut in would have to wait for less time. This rule should also be applied to VIP’S because they are no different then ordinary humans. These day’s there is almost a caste system even for line’s where the more important people are allowed to go in front of all the ordinary people. This just proves that we are allowing injustice to be caused to the ordinary people!

Why is it so important to change this behaviour? First of all it’s for their own personality development. People

should learn how to be more patient and wait for their own turn. This behaviour is not really going to harm us in any way right now or even in the future but it is all about morality. People cut lines because they consider themselves more important the all the other people and it is not like that. Giving people in a perfectly fit state the permission to cut in front of many others is just plain unfairness or injustice. If this

does not stop, it could develop into a kind of caste system where only some people would be allowed to cut in lines.

How will I motivate people to change their behaviours? The act of cutting in line is frowned upon by most people,

however there could be a new rule such as “fair cutting” in which the person wanting to cut would first have to ask for permission from the person who he/she wants to cut in front of and would only be allowed if the person said “yes”. Another rule could be a “back cut” in which you can get behind a person instead of them but you would still have to ask and if denied, you would not be allowed.

Another thing that you could do is increasing the amount of

counters if possible. For example, at our school there could be two cashiers because I have witnessed and experienced lots of people cut in front of me. Having more cashiers could solve the cutting problem because people would have to wait for less time and also it would solve the problem of getting late to lunch activities like Student Council and House Meetings.

A possible solution could be to increase security. I don’t mean for

places like schools but more formal like the immigration at the airport or the ticket counter at a movie theatre where time is of the essence and no one gets to have a unfair advantage. I don’t mean having security cameras or anything but just a guard to look over the line would really help.