March 9,1994
Campus Opinion
Editorial’ Meredith Angels??
by Christina Peo[rfes
Meredith women do not have the
rights to be grouchy, tired, stressed
out or impolite at any time. Meredith
women must always maintain a certain
decorumon and off campus. Meredith
women must be ready with a smile, a
kind word and a handshake for anyone
they meet. In short, Meredith women
must be “perfect angels.’
Although our mascot is the angel
aod we do have some angelic qualities,
Meredith women are not divine or
perfea, and we certainly don't have
wings and halos (not all the time any-
way). Meredith angels are capable of
human gdlacy and emotions (much to
the surprise of the foculty and adminis
tration). As much as Meredith has tried
tochangethe “finl^iing school’ image
over the past few years, some Raleigh
citizeas still have the demented notion
that our courses here consist of Please
and Thank You 101, Admced Napkin
Foldii^ and the Fok Ait of Forks.
I never actuaOy believed that peofHe
thoi^t of Meredith in that way until
this past Saturday when four other
Meredith students and I made a “run
for the border” after we toA the Na
tional Teacher Examination (NTE). As
anyone who has taken the first two
sections of the NTE knows, the tests
are both two hours long and there is
only a brief break between the sec
tions. We had to arrive at our test site
in Harris Hall by 7:30 a.m„ and most of
us arrived with little or no breakfest
and serious bags .under our eyes. We
were not happy uppers.
After being tortured with history,
science, mathematics, literature, fine
arts and communication skills, none of
us had any communication skills left.
We had taken four subjects and mashed
them into one test, strained to catch
phrases on a tape, obeyed the law of
limited time for each section, and writ
ten an essay. By the time we escaped
from the h^ desks that had numbed
our rear ends it was 1:30 p.m, and we
were hungiy, worn out and on edge.
We flnaUy made ittoTaco Bell(our
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salvation) at 2:00 and jumped excit
edly into the relatively short line. £v-
eiyone ordered her food and tried to
keep the drool fiom dripping on the
counter. At that point, please and thank
you were not on our mind, but our
giowiing tiunmies were. We did not
tell the man who handed us our food
“Thank you," but we did give him a
grateful smile (enough to be polite we
thought).
Four of us had been at the table for
a while when our fifth party who had
been the last in line join^ us. She
lookedalittle Stated, but we assumed
that it was just the stress of the test that
we had just finished. We gobbled our
food in )6.9 seconds, forgetting our
mothers' advice to chew our food
twenty times before swallowing.
Our Mend who came to the table
last whispered that she had something
to tell us. I noticed a roan who had
been behind all of us in line leavii^ the
restaurant at the same time. After his
departure she politely waited to tell us
thu this man had the nerve to com
plain about our manners in line.
He bad stopped our friend and
asked, ‘Doesn’t Meredith teach you
manners anymore? 1 thought that was
what it was supposed to cto." He went
on to say that he had noticed that none
of us had said ‘thank you" to the man
who gave us our food. Not only was
this man rude enoi^h to point out our
foults to us, but he also obviously lis
tened in on our conversation to know
we were from Meredith because none
of us were wearing Meredith clothes.
Didn’t his mother tell him the Biblical
story that ended with “Those of you
without sin cast the first stone.' I guess
not
My firiend politely accepted the criti
cism and thanked the man when he
handed her the tray of food. She did
not mention the foct that there were
severaiNC State students in line before
us who did not drip honeyed thank-
you's on the guy behind the coumer.
Why didn’t this Mr. Manners share his
wisdom with those unenlightened
folks? Because he did not have any
expectations of politeness £rom them.
The State students are only human of
course, bia Meredith women are an
gels.
"To be great is to be mJsunderstood."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
There's no one more misunderstooci than the staff
of the Meredith Herald. So be great and join
Tracey’s Band of News Hounds.
It's not too late to join the staff.We are always lookingfor
reporters, photographers, cartoonists and people
who make us look good. (After all, we have an image
to maintain). If you are interested in woridng on the best
(and only) newspaper at Meredith College, contact
Tracey Rawls (X7931).
If you are too busy this semester to help
Tracey, consider working on the sta^ next year.
(I hear all the good people are graduating!)