Stealing Time

(Presented in class)

Imagine you are in a restaurant. A waitress bringing you your food pauses for a moment by another table. A customer reaches out and takes part of your food off of your plate. She doesn’t notice. The thief eats your food!

Of course WE would not do that! Stealing is an immoral thing to do. It hurts other people. Most of us would say that we would not steal. But just how well do we live up to that standard?

Consider very carefully what goes on in many classrooms. Too many students like to just have fun and joke around in class. Because it disrupts the class it reduces the amount that can be learned. But that is exactly stealing. They are stealing time from others, and turning it to their own interest and use. They steal from the other students because they are stealing time available for learning.

Disruptive students are stealing from parents, including their own. Parents have paid the cost of attending school, either directly for a private school, or through taxes for a public school. Your parents are expecting you will receive full class periods of instruction. Disruption in class means they pay for something you never received! The teaching they have paid for is being stolen! It is like someone taking a bit of food off the plate as the waitress is bringing it to your table!

“But I know all this stuff, and I’m bored!” That may be true, but it does not give you a license to steal education from others! Be careful that you do not become a time thief!

How would you feel if your grandmother was sitting in the back of the room, and watched you steal education from yourself and the other students? How would you answer her question, "Why?"