First, read the following scenario; at the end, you will find some questions and instructions to write your response paper.
During their summer break, a group of twenty students from a prestigious British high school went on a week-long tour of Italy, accompanied by their Art History teacher. They visited a number of citiesVenice, Florence, Romeadmiring artworks in museums, visiting churches and monuments, and enjoying gelatos and iced coffees in their free time.
One day, the students went to see Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral in Florence. As they were waiting in line to enter the cathedral, they were approached by street sellers offering selfie sticks, I <3 Firenze T-shirts, and felt-tip permanent markers. Among the tourists were other groups of teenagers on school trips, from Italian and European cities, and many of them were buying the markers. When they climbed on the cathedral roof, it became obvious what the markers were for: kids were signing their names here and there on the marble walls.
Taking advantage of a moment when the teacher was admiring the stained-glass windows inside, five of the students borrowed a marker and also wrote on the cathedral wall: XXX Grammar School, August 5, 2017. Unfortunately for them, the teacher found out almost right away, and she was not exactly thrilled. She rounded up the class, and asked who had made graffiti on the monument; the five culprits quickly confessed. Angry and embarrassed, the teacher dragged them to the cathedral museum offices, where she tried to explain the situation to one of the employees. Luckily, the museum director was on site, and after some back and forth the teacher was directed to his office, where she again explained what had happened.
We are terribly sorry, sir; the kids would like to apologise to you in person, and they will personally clean up the graffiti they made. We will be back first thing tomorrow morning with sponges and bleach, and they will scrub it all away, I promise.
Signora, the director replied, dont worry about it. They are kids, these things happen! Theres no need for you to come back tomorrow to clean up!
Sir, I insist, I am really sorry about this, and it is important that the kids learn a lesson here.
Signora, believe me, its ok. Please dont worry about it.
Sir, please, let me bring the kids back to apologise to you in person, and also wipe out the graffiti. They even wrote the name of the school! This is not the kind of behaviour that we condone at XXX Grammar!
Signora, please, its fine, it was just kids play! Besides, you cannot just use bleach on the walls of the cathedral. This is century-old marble, it needs to be handled by specialised personnel with the appropriate techniques, you cant just scrub it with a cleaning product from the supermarket.
I understand; well, if that is the case, we are willing to pay for the specialised technicians to do the cleaning. It is our responsibility to do that. Just let me know who I can contact and how can I pay for this.
Madam, its not necessary, these things are very expensive, your graffiti will get wiped the next time we do an overall cleaning of the cathedral walls.
And when will that be?
Ah, well, we are not sure there is talk of some European funds coming for this, but I cannot give you an exact date now, these things take a long time. It could be next year or it could be ten years from now, it really depends.
But surely there must be a way to do it sooner than that? As I said, we are willing to pay whatever there is to pay!
Madam, really, you are getting worked up about nothing; they are kids, these things happen, please dont worry about it!
The conversation continued like this for some time. Both parties were getting increasingly frustrated.
Questions and instructions
What do you think was happening here? Where did the tension arise from? And how could it be resolved? What could have been done differently?
Write a two-part response paper, of maximum 500 words, addressing this scenario in light of what you have learned in the course. In the first part, analyse the situation and explain how different norms of politeness/impoliteness are involved. In the second part, imagine that you are one of the characters in the story (either the teacher or the museum director, or, if you prefer, another employee from the school or the museum) and propose a solution.
In writing the short response essay, be careful to provide your own analysis of the situation; do not simply rehash the content of the lectures and readings but make sure to connect them to the specific situation you analyse. The essay will also be assessed based on structure, clarity of expression, ability to think critically, and ability to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the themes of the course.
