Services for the slow moving
Monday, July 25, 2016 at 03:19PM 
What we need is not more and swifter express lanes, but more dedicated Extremely Slow Lines. These would be lines for people who create massive bottlenecks because … they’re not prepared when their turn comes or they’re just not in a hurry like the rest of us.
Many people calibrate their daily routines so they can avoid the line at the bank, the queue at the restaurant or the scrum at the doctor’s office. Most of us still wind up stacked in a holding pattern, fuming in lines that move … too … slowly.
The experienced line judge scans for potential dawdlers. That includes people fumbling with their wallets, squinting as if they had just emerged from a decade or two of hibernation. Millennials glued to their smartphones should cull themselves into those slow lines because they’re distracted. Shoppers who write personal checks for merchandise or groceries — 1987 calling! — belong in the Extremely Slow Line.
If the members of the SloMo Brigade were herded into a line where they could take their time, dither, daydream, fish for checks or cash, or jabber on their smartphones, then everyone else would be free to move briskly through whatever lines remained with a minimum of waiting. FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
How many kids are in ourclassrooms feeling stuck in the slow line?
Reader Comments (1)
I read this editorial and I was appalled by the attitude. I guess I'm one of those people who doesn't think it is inconveniencing others to pay by check occasionally (really? That takes so much extra time?) or who has better things to do with my mental effort than to tally those who are going to take too long because I'm in a rush and need to be mad about something. It speaks to a fundamental disrespect of people different from you in general, and I hope that if kids in school feel like they're stuck in the slow lane because other children learn at a slower clip or because their preferred device isn't the one being used in class, that we teach them patience, kindness, metacognition, and how to daydream. Frankly, insisting that adults are just holding them back and forcing them to learn things they don't wanna in ways they don't like is unnecessary, they'll be sure of that all on their own. School's goals include citizenship, and demanding speed doesn't get much learning accomplished for sure.