COLUMN: Etiquette needs to be resurrected

Production managers should consider adding “couple on a first date” to “children under 5” on the prohibited patrons list.

Attending a play or a symphony may seem like great “first date” material, but what about the people sitting around these couples who don’t care what their hobbies are or what their major is, or if they have a pet?

Appreciating the arts doesn’t simply mean attending to get extra credit for a class. It means appreciating it. Webster’s dictionary defines appreciate as a verb meaning “to value justly, to be grateful for, to increase in value.” How can one put a value on something when it has simply acted as background noise to a private conversation?

It is unfortunate that this kind of behavior is present in higher education. Perhaps it could be justified at the matinee for an elementary school field trip, or even junior high school students.

But for adults, who should act independent from any teacher’s requirement, to give such disregard to the members of the audience sitting nearby, not to mention the performers themselves, is uncalled for.

On etiquette – just because it is the digital age, doesn’t mean everyone in class wants to know about someone’s involvement in it. Turn off the cell phones. No one is important enough to necessitate a phone call during a lecture.

Turn it off, leave it home, turn on that nifty vibrating option – everyone in the class is there at some price, so respect should be given to those there to actually learn something.