📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you saw children behave badly in public

This episode's vocabulary

Antisocial behaviour (noun phrase) – actions that harm or lack consideration for others, especially in public. → Antisocial behaviour by unruly adolescents is a serious issue.

Unruly (adjective) – badly behaved or difficult to control. → Unruly teenagers were causing chaos.

Egregious (adjective) – extremely bad in a noticeable way. → A particularly egregious example stands out in my mind.

Excursion (noun) – a short journey or trip, especially one for pleasure or education. → I was doing an excursion with a class.

Artefacts (noun) – objects made by humans, typically of cultural or historical interest. → The Ashmolean Museum has exhibitions of artefacts.

Exemplary (adjective) – serving as a desirable model; outstanding. → Their behaviour was exemplary.

Judgmental looks (noun phrase) – disapproving facial expressions directed at someone. → People responded with judgmental looks.

Unmolested (adjective) – not disturbed or harmed. → I wanted my students to get to the museum unmolested.

Second-hand embarrassment (noun phrase) – feeling embarrassed on someone else’s behalf. → I had a lot of second-hand embarrassment for those children.

Show themselves up (phrasal verb) – to behave in a way that embarrasses oneself. → I wouldn't be caught dead letting my kids show themselves up.

Disruptive (adjective) – causing disorder or problems, especially in a learning environment. → Disruptive behaviour can ruin a school trip.

Supervise (verb) – to oversee and manage people or activities. → Teachers must supervise students closely on excursions.

Conduct (noun/verb) – the way someone behaves; to behave. → They should reflect on their conduct in public.

Decorum (noun) – proper and polite behaviour in society. → Maintaining decorum is important on educational outings.

Peer pressure (noun) – influence from members of one’s peer group. → Some antisocial behaviour stems from peer pressure.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a time when you saw children behave badly in public. You should say where it was, what the children were doing, how others reacted to it and explain how you felt about it.

Rory: Well, unfortunately, antisocial behaviour by unruly adolescents is a serious issue in our country, so I see this kind of thing all the time. A particularly egregious example that stands out in my mind was when I was in Oxford last year doing an excursion with a class that I was teaching.

In a bit more detail about where we were, this was Oxford City Centre, and we were on our way to the famous Ashmolean Museum, which has exhibitions of artefacts from a variety of cultures around the world, and I was quite excited to be there, and I think the class was too. To get there, we had to walk from the bus stop through the centre and to the museum. And to say a little about what the young people in question were doing, it wasn't actually my students who were misbehaving, actually their behaviour was exemplary. Instead, it was some local teenagers who were causing absolute chaos, just shouting and screaming and falling all over the place. And just based on what I could see, it looked like they had been drinking and were not handling that experience very well, or they were thinking they were and making a right mess of it. Most people seemed to have responded to what was going on the same way I did, by keeping out of their road and just shooting them these judgemental looks. I can't really talk about it in much more detail since my attention was focused on making sure my students got to the Ashmolean unmoleted. I was just anxious to keep them clear of that kind of unruly behaviour, not only because they might have gotten involved in a fight, but also because it would harm the reputation of the school, and mine as a teacher, now that I think about it.

When it comes to my personal feelings on the matter, I had a lot of second-hand embarrassment for those local children and their families. If I were a parent, I wouldn't be caught dead allowing my kids to show themselves up like that. Hopefully, once they recovered from the experience, they reflected on it and learned a lesson about how to conduct themselves better in public.