My simple plan will save children

IF Laura Uzelac had her way, social­ manners would be included in the school curriculum alongside English, maths and science.

Laura Uzelac with her son Maxim Uzelac, 3 / Picture; John Fotiadis

IF Laura Uzelac had her way, social­ manners would be included in the school curriculum alongside English, maths and science.

The Canley Vale mother of two thinks social interaction is a dying art that should be taught to children from the preschool years into adulthood.

“Social manners is about the behaviour of people and how we interact with each other in the community,” Ms Uzelac said.

“The behaviours are not very clear, we are often left wondering how to treat one another in social situations and this has only become­ more difficult with the large number of different cultures living side by side.

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“Everyone seems to have different­ expectations, even about simple things like shaking hands or kissing on meeting, or keeping a friendly distance when talking to someone.”

Ms Uzelac has been nominated in the education category of The Daily Telegraph and NewsLocal’s Champions of the West awards. The Fair Go for the West campaign’s grants competition offers a $10,000 grant in each of 13 categories.

The difficulties people face in interacting with one another has long troubled Ms Uzelac, who has lived in 10 different countries including her native Switzerland, France, Germany, the Caribbean and the US.

But the gaps in the community’s ability to interact socially became glaringly obvious when her eldest son, Gregory, 6, began school last year.

“When Gregory started kindy last year there was such an emphasis on building our children’s resilience and confidence, which is fine, but I think teaching them how to interact socially is a more important life lesson,” she said.

Ms Uzelac believes society’s dependence on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to communicate will only make our social inadequacies worse over time.

“We really need to get on to this now before it gets any worse,” she said.

“Especially with children and young adults who are communicating more and more through social media.

“We need to teach the dying art of face-to-face communication, it’s as simple as that.”

If she wins her category, Ms Uzelac wants to spend the prizemoney to work with education sector professionals to create a suitable course outline.