Civility Project Promotes Respect and Thoughtful Behavior
The University of West Georgia is welcoming its freshman class this year with a schedule that includes a study in civility. The UWG Civility Project is an innovative approach to bringing a spirit of cooperation and understanding to students and the campus.
The project centers on the book, Choosing Civility: Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct. Written by P.M. Forni, professor and cofounder of The Johns Hopkins Civility Project at Johns Hopkins University, the text is required reading for freshmen and will be used by teachers as a resource to emphasize the tenants of thoughtful behavior, communication skills and common respect and decency.
Forni wrote the book to gently persuade the average citizen that “good manners aren’t just good for others — they are good for us, too.” Messages and rules such as “think twice before asking for favors,” “refrain from idle complaints” and “respect one another’s space” head chapters filled with advice, wisdom and common sense.
The book is not a required text in any of the freshman classes but will be available more as a tool for teachers in the classroom. Choosing Civility teaches students how to negotiate the tricky terrain of the transition from high school to college.
How students present themselves, their interaction with others and what sort of expectations they bring to their new environment are all helped through a better understanding of civility, said Dr. Jane Hill, professor and chair of the Department of English. Hill is chairing the UWG Civility Project.
“From my perspective, the program allows both faculty and students to have clearer expectations of how we should negotiate the many complicated interchanges we have among ourselves each and every day,” said Hill. “By having incoming students exposed to a text that raises questions about how humans can most successfully participate in a community, we have automatically created first-year students more prepared for our environment than ever before.”
Forni will be visiting the UWG campus in March as a guest lecturer on civility. For more information on the UWG project and Choosing Civility, go to www.westga.edu/~bigbook/.
