Courteous - Courtesy to Those Who Serve You
| Category: | Scout Law |
|---|---|
| Notes: | Good before summer camp (dining hall staff, camp staff), before a troop trip with restaurant stops, or any time. Works for Cub Scouts and older Scouts. |
Here's something I believe: you can tell a lot about a person by how they treat the people who serve them.
Anybody can be polite to their teacher or their Scoutmaster. Those people are in charge. But what about the people who aren't? The waiter bringing your food. The cashier at the grocery store. The custodian who cleans your school after everybody goes home. The bus driver. And at summer camp, the dining hall staff, the lifeguards, and the camp counselors who are barely older than you.
A lot of people treat those folks like they're invisible. They don't look up from their phones. They don't say please. They leave a mess and walk away, because "it's their job to clean it up."
A Scout is courteous to everyone. Not just to the people who can do something for you. Everyone.
That looks like little things. Looking people in the eye. Saying "please" and "thank you." Learning the dining hall worker's name and using it. Stacking your plates neatly instead of leaving a disaster. Saying "Have a good day" and meaning it.
Those people work hard, and most of the time nobody notices. When a Scout notices, it can make their whole day.
At the next meal out, or the first day of summer camp, pay attention to who's serving you. Then thank them like you mean it.