Photo credit: Clément Proust
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
The New York Times’ student-oriented publication on The Learning Network, offered by The Times to teachers and students, asks, “Is it OK to shush people who are noisy in public?” The subhead states: “A writer claims that we have a civic duty to tell people when they are disrupting others. Do you agree?”
The article goes on to describe several examples, including people talking in a movie theater, playing a video game on a bus without using headphones or fellow students talking out of turn in class. It then asks students to answer several questions, using their oral or written language skills.
My answer to this question is a definite “Yes!” I think we all have a civic responsibility to speak up when others are disrupting an activity shared by others, whether that’s an 11-year old boy running willy-nilly at a wedding reception or someone speaking during a performance, such as a concert or movie.
Our noise colleague Arline Bronzaft often writes that not making noise that might disturb others is part of respecting others. I couldn’t agree more. If everyone taught children and grandchildren that it wasn’t right to make noise in quiet situations and if everyone respected others within earshot when there is a general expectation of quiet, the world will be a quieter and better place for all.
