Retired Teacher Avril Lethbridge Makes 'Good Manners' App: Nice Bear, Naughty Bear

Avril Lethbridge

The Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 09/12/11 11:49 Updated: 12/12/11 09:25

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A retired teacher from Oxford, frustrated with children's bad manners, has made an app in the hope of ironing out rudeness.

Frustrated grandmother Avril Lethbridge told the BBC she was inspired after being on a bus when an older woman got on and nobody stood up for her.

"The poor darling was wobbling about... all these hoodies just didn't move."

She told the Oxford Times: “In the end I offered her mine. And I was 77 at the time.”

The incident inspired the now 79-year-old to make 'Nice Bear, Naughty Bear'.

Her app for iPhones and iPads features 16 bear characters with their own rhyme to teach manners. The app started life as a book, but she hopes that the digitised version will be even more popular.

Children who behave badly get a groan from a naughty bear, but those who behave well receive a cheer.

In the end it comes down to old-fashioned parenting methods, Lethbridge explained.

"By the end of the week they might get their special comic or be allowed to stay up late. There's nothing like being rewarded. A bit of bribery and corruption basically."

Lethbridge hopes that her app will make children more socially responsible: "Manners aren't a pompous thing. They're just about being kind to people and it gives you a happier life."

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fredgladys
Your Micro-bio is empty, I know, stop nagging.
312 Fans
03:44 on 16/12/2011
Has she got an app for the parents of these little darlings.
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mcewan07
5 Fans
09:40 on 12/12/2011
It is true many will not move today, their is also others who do move , like i did, to be told no the seat is too far away , and they would rather stand. ( it was the 2nd row back from the front - no steps etc to go up).Fair enough she didn't want it, but it wasn't a thank you but no, it was "it's too far" their wasn't a thank you anyway muttered.
Or the time i got on a bus(as husband was at work,and so i didn't have a car to go in) almost 8 months pregnant (clearly showing) while pushing a pushchair to get to my midwife appointment, to have older people sit being me, and moan about me taking up the front seat, and why should young people need on a bus? I never said anything except to myself, 'because its pouring with rain outside im pregnant with an almost 2 year old in a buggy and the clinic is about 5 miles away but if i was the only thing they could moan about so be it'
The ignorance and moans about people go to both the old and the young, its about time blame gets put about in proportion, and as much as it may tend to be the young have poor values their not all bad, and not all old people are good.
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Ppenguinator
Life's too imprtant to be taken seriously.
167 Fans
 
20:24 on 10/12/2011
It seems a lot of people need to remove their rose-tinted glasses.
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Electrastar
32 Fans
19:11 on 10/12/2011
No Manners or Etiquette, No Taste, Elegence or Style. Pretty much sums up many of todays young people.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ppenguinator
Life's too imprtant to be taken seriously.
167 Fans
 
20:19 on 10/12/2011
Some young people from any time.
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Electrastar
32 Fans
18:55 on 10/12/2011
But who controls the app and pushes the button or puts Naughty bear on mute mode?
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The Truth Finder
0 Fans
12:28 on 10/12/2011
Children learn from parents. The apples will be rotten if the root is rotten.
In our School days we used to start the class with prayer. Used to call teacher Sir or Madam.
Our teachers used respectable dress. Never spoke bad language.
The good old days gone. They swear, no respect inside and outside.
Will we ever see again those golden days ?
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Ppenguinator
Life's too imprtant to be taken seriously.
167 Fans
 
20:20 on 10/12/2011
Did we ever, apart from through rose-tinted glasses?
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Makalha
5 Fans
11:49 on 10/12/2011
A nice idea Mrs Lethbridge but I can't really see all these " hoodies " downloading an app called Nice Bear Naughty Bear !
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wendle
8 Fans
11:36 on 10/12/2011
Good luck to you ,your going to need it, Watching the teenagers on living with the Amish, bought them down with a bump,one of the boys had never worked since he left school and said he had no intentions of doing so, The Amish teens just could not believe it, Mind you those 4 teens must have been especially chosen as they were well behaved and enjoyed their time with Amish, not like those who went to ordinary families in other countries
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Makalha
5 Fans
11:46 on 10/12/2011
I think that The Amish community although to many of us seem to have some strange ideas what shines through is their identity as a community . I didn't see all of the programmes but it was clear from what I did see that they all felt of equal value and that they were " all in it together "
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wendle
8 Fans
12:00 on 10/12/2011
yes I agree with you, rather refreshing I thought, but I do not think I could go along with some of it, but as you say they all seem to work together one big family
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chumbri
0 Fans
10:07 on 10/12/2011
I think its a disgrace kids dont seem to know what manners and respect are nowadays !
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peterbrdgmn
0 Fans
09:41 on 10/12/2011
Bad move, equality doesn`t work for women, they want it both ways. Can`t we go back to where we were when we did stand up on buses for women & the elderly, I`m 75 and still do it.
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Makalha
5 Fans
11:38 on 10/12/2011
People misunderstand equality for women. It doesn't mean being the same as men . It is more the right to have the same choices and voice as men . As a female pensioner I would be happy to accept a seat from a younger fit person male or female but would feel more uncomfortable if offered a seat by an obviously older male . I feel this is more good manners and caring than equality.
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KazH
0 Fans
12:14 on 10/12/2011
Thank you for your common sense, manners cost nothing. I work in a school & see the disrespect they have for all adults & sadly, it begins at home. I am awaiting a back operation, but still give my seat up when I can. I agree that equality isn't about getting one over on men, it's about being treated equally, being given the same respect, opportunities & pay as men doing the same job & also having men pull their weight around the house. Most women I know work & yet their partners expect them to run around after them when they are capable of looking after themselves.
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Destroy All Governments
6 Fans
02:49 on 10/12/2011
The way kids are today...I don't know, so rude most of them, and have you seen the way they look? Long unkempt hair on the boys...and the girls skirts, so short, think they call them mini-skirts, or something like that, these flared trousers...disgusting! , it's shocking, let's all hope that in the new year of 1968 things will get better....LOL!
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KazH
0 Fans
22:31 on 09/12/2011
I work in a school & the children don't know when they are actually swearing or blaspheming, it's 'normal' in their homes (& with the music they hear around them), and it's the same with manners. I notice the girls give up their seats quite often, because they are more caring on the whole, but have yet to see a boy give up their seat. Good for her. Manners cost nothing is an old but true saying.
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Makalha
5 Fans
11:56 on 10/12/2011
I am not sure I agree that they don't know they are swearing . I know that my grandchildren swear when with their friends but none had really used bad language in front of me. Recently my grandaughter was visiting with her mother and was swearing and her mum told her to be careful . The next visit from grandaughter on her own and not a bad word passed her lips . As she left I remarked how nice it was not hearing her swear and she was so pleased that I had noticed .
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KazH
0 Fans
12:08 on 10/12/2011
Many children say, "I didn't swear, Miss, what did I say?". I have to descreetly point out that the words they use ARE swearing or blaspheming and are offensive to many. They use them regularly yet have never been told they are actually swearing. A few sing songs that contain swearing & they sing it because they hear it in the media, again, not realising it. I offer a few suggestions if they need to let off steam or anger, or ,at a push, change the word to something less offensive. drat, bother, blast, etc.
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Norman Mitchison
43 Fans
 
16:15 on 09/12/2011
A copy to the misbehaved,childish adults in the House of Commons would not go amiss either.
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olddot
0 Fans
12:43 on 10/12/2011
Too right! They might try setting an example by giving up their outrageously generous pension scheme while they're at it; and having Baroness Uddin (from theLords) and Frank Dobson and no doubt a few more (plus Bob Crowe) move out of their social housing, to make room for the real poor. Not all the moral rot in our country comes from the feckless bottom layer, or the young. I watched a middle aged businessman get on a tube yesterday, and take the last available seat, leaving a hugely pregnant woman (and me, aged 67) standing. But the pregnant lady got a seat -- an Italian teenager stood up for her. And on the next train, a young muslim girl offered me hers. It's not age, it's upbringing.
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flymo42
10 Fans
14:56 on 09/12/2011
Its an old saying "manners maketh man"
It's all about respect and self esteem - and these days few parents are willing to spend the time to make it a normal function.
Many of the obnoxious self absorbed youth of today just don't have time to think about others (unless its about some reality garbage on tv or tabloids)

Good for you Ms Lethbridge
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Daviejohn
All the world's a stage,
24 Fans
 
14:13 on 09/12/2011
Good luck Mrs. Lethbridge, I feel you are trying to do a Canute but I admire your spirit. Whether the Feral youth you are aiming at notice the irony in Nice bear, Naughty Bear remains to be seen.
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