Lays potato chip bags spread across the floor, empty bottles thrown around, sofas flipped and turned upside down, and stains all over the carpet — is this a dump or a common room of one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the world? These are the conditions I found in the Crowe when giving one of my first tours this year.
The Crowe is just one example of many of how Deerfield students have taken spaces and left them destroyed. After sending repeated emails, Mr. Scandling has continuously found English classrooms a mess too, with empty food containers and the shades down. As a school, we are all responsible for the way we have left these rooms and need to hold our peers to a higher standard. It’s an embarrassment for Deerfield to be seen as a junkyard. These conditions are a representation of how we have begun to treat others — with lack of respect or kindness.
When ordering at the Greer, I typically hear phrases such as: “I want,” “Give me,” or “Chicken tenders.” Not enough people ask the cashier how their day was or even use “please.” Later, when picking up food, students will typically grab their food and leave. I don’t hear enough “thank you”s.
Although these words may seem small, they mean a lot. The staff who work in the Greer and Koch Café are some of the nicest people on campus. Get to know them and treat them with the same respect you have towards your parents or teachers because they are just as deserving.
In recent years, Deerfield students have shown a lack of manners towards those helping make our everyday life easier. Rather than keeping the area clean, students have left the work for others with the mindset that it’s someone else’s job. I see example after example, besides just the absence of thank you when ordering food and leaving classrooms a mess. This is a mindset we must change as a community in order to learn the proper manners needed in everyday life. Why do we as students feel the need to be so disrespectful? How can we improve ourselves as a community? What is our role in this? How can we reconcile the values we preach with our actions?
As a community, Deerfield preaches the ideals of humility and gratitude towards the student body. Let’s internalize these concepts and begin to practice them in our everyday life. Picking up a piece of trash off the floor, although seeming like a simple deed, has a large impact on helping us respect and be kind to others. Saying please and thank you go a long way when ordering food.
These are simple things. It is our job as students to hold each other to a higher standard and create a community where we can respect those who make our everyday life easier.