sign of the times...

...I guess.

In the building where I teach today, there are big wide hallways. These hallways have groups of chairs here and there, between the classrooms, so students between classes have a place to sit and study (or sleep, or chat, or read).

Well, today I noticed some new signs. Computer printed, 8 1/2 by 11 sheets, laminated and stuck to the wall about every 10 feet.

They said:

PLEASE KEEP YOUR VOICES DOWN.

While I don't argue it's a useful admonition, it makes me kind of sad that it has to be there - I mean, the people sitting in the chairs KNOW they are no more than 10 feet from a classroom door - and our classrooms are not soundproofed, and I, for one, prefer to leave the door to the room open (in case anyone arrives late, or if someone has a coughing fit and has to go to the water fountain).

I mean - you'd think people would realize that talking loudly disrupts the classes in process. (I know I have had to talk to a few people over the years, mainly when I was proctoring exams and the people who finished early would go hang out in the hall - and sometimes even DISCUSS the exam they had just finished. Uh, guys? You do know there are people still TAKING the exam?)

Usually I'd just go to the door, glare out in the hall at the offenders, and loudly-but-not-slamming close the door.

But you know? I wonder if this isn't how life is getting to be, at least for a while: that everyone needs little etiquette reminders everywhere (like at the post office: "Don't talk on your cell phone while we are serving you." Or on the train: "Parents, please do not let your children run unattended up and down the aisles.")

I wonder if this is some kind of (il)logical extension of the "CYA advisements" (or "dummy-rules") that come on so many products these days - like the infamous cardboard sunshade that had three lines of directions on how to set it up and take it down, and a fourth line saying, "Caution: do not drive with sunshade in place." What I mean by this is, have we decayed to the point as a society that we're going to do something unless we're specifically told not to, either because we figure "if they don't tell us it's dangerous, it must be safe" or "I'm going to do what I want and if it disturbs other people, the Hell with them"?

I don't know. I will say in my class this morning there was a guy right on the front row with a Bluetooth piece wedged in his ear, which made me shudder inwardly a bit (He didn't use it while in class, at least)