The first Generational Curriculum report that I read was titled "I Own the Sidewalk". There were three groups in which a person could be catergorized in. They were the "blind-bat", the "Mr./Mrs. Aloha" and the "groupies". I could personally relate to two of the three groups.
The "blind-bat" group of people simply do not pay attention to where they are walking but, are to polite and apologitic to get angry at. I do this constantly. I especially do this when I am walking alone or with my boyfriend. I am busy looking and something else instead of looking where I am walking. Mr. Takitani's comments on his Generational Curriculum were also interesting and I thought related to the "blind-bat" in another way. People not looking where they are
walking at a cross walk can cause a potentially bad scene.
PART B=anchor
((Todd Takitani:please make a link in your file from your paragraph to this anchor.Thanks.))
The second group is the "Mr./Mrs. Aloha" people. I am completely quilty of being this person. These people like to be friendly and stop to talk to everyone These people do not worry if you are in a rush. I suspect that these people have been also referred to as the "Mayor" because I certainly have been. Many of my friends ask me "what, are you running for Mayor" after walking down the sidewalk for me less than fifteen minutes and I have stopped at least fifteen times to talk to someone.
The third group is known as the "groupies". There are usually two or more people walking together who begin to fan out across the sidewalk as you get near tothem. This group, I can honestly say, I do not belong to. As a runner, I use the sidewalks quiet frequently and have encountered this group often. It is most frustrating to have to always run around them. When I am walking with a group of people, I move over to let a person pass. Perhaps I am more aware when walking with a large group of people than when I am alone or only with my boyfriend. The only time that I have had any stress while walking on the sidewalk is when I have been late in getting somewhere and the sidewalks are crowded and/or people are walking slowly.
There were four rules that were mentioned that may be of some assistance in aiding the feelings of sidewalk frustration. The rules were as follows:(1) be aware of those around you;(2) make your presence known by coughing or some other sort of noise;(3) to do positive self talk, continue to be polite;and (4) keep a friendly attitude towards other pedestrians at all times. For the most part, I believe that these rules can be helpful in reducing sidewalk frustration. However, if I were trying to observe rule (3) I would then change rule (2). I would rather tell someone "hi!" or say "excuse me" as a more polite way of making my presence known. I believe it is all in the perception of the situation. I mean that, if you percieve that this person is purposefully walking into you,stopping to talk to you to make you late or these people are walking on the entire sidewalk to force you off, you will most likely become frustrated. However,just remember rule (3) to do positive self talk. This simple excercise can change your whole perception of a situation.
The second Generational Curriculum report was titled "Male Dominance". This report discussed the prejudice attitude of a family friend, Mr. Sing. While riding in the car with Mr. Sing, this person observes that he is able to excuse male drivers for their poor driving and even makes such excuses for them such as, "He must have had a hard and stressful day at work". However, a female driver could make the same driving error as that male driver and Mr. Sing would say such things as, "You idiot, that's a women drier for you." Mr. Sing also made other referrences to women as "trying to please their man", when seen driving an expensive car. I should also mention that Mr. Sing has had several poor relationships with women in the past. He also associates with other divorced men at the golf course.
There were three concepts, prejudice, stereotypes and sexism, offered as explaination for Mr. Sing's behavior. However, these concepts were not expanded on. In my opinion, Mr. Sing appears to be practicing all of the three concepts. However, I wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, does Mr. Sing treat women poorly because he has been mistreated by women in the past or do women treat him poorly because he has never treated women well in the first place. I also have to wonder if there may be more to why Mr. Sing is so negative to women. It may be possible that his attitude towards women may have been formed as a child, perhaps his father or significant male figure in his childhood modeled these behaviors for him. Perhaps he was abused by his mother or some other significant female figure in his childhood.
One thing I can say for sure is that it is very unfortunate that people have such strong bias' against another person. However, I have even caught myself saying such things as "you stupid women driver" and I am female.