, 1880-06-07
Politeness by the Book.

The school board of this city has re-
solved to add course of lessons in eti-
quette to the regular curriculum of the
public schools. Manuals of politeness
are TO be furnished, and some of tho
best readers will read aloud from these,
the teacher following in a brief oral
exposition with practice in the various
branches. The studies in etiquette are
to cover wide range. General pre-
cepts are to be particularized into such
details as dress, carriage and bearing,
conversation, table-manners, riding and
driving, school-dsportment and the
rules of behavior laid down by George
Washington. There can hardly be a
more enlarged field for study and
practice than this involves nor is there
any field of education in which there
is greater scope for the ingenuity of
the urbane teacher. Much depends on
the teacher, and far more on the matter
of her instruction. A teacher who un-
dertakes to hear a recitation in po-
liteness, after the wooden manner in
which large proportion of the reci
tatioas are I" heard" will make the
thing intensely ridiculous. An acidu-
lous person whose habit is to enforce
lessons by scolding them into the chill
drcn will make their victims hate po-
hteness and despise the very name of
it. The instructor who drills the classes
in the mere observances of polite forms
and phrases may succeed in rescuing
the scholars from tbs extremity of
boorishness, but will fail in imparting
to them any of the graces of genuine
good breeding. The teacher whose
custom it is to bark and bite at the
poor children in order to drive instruct
ion into their unwilling minds will find
himself o laughing stock as he reads off
from his politeness- book some unpleas-
ant injunction to courteous deneanor.
There is great deal of so-callsd po-
likeness which is only of the book,
bookish. 1t is stilted, empty, formal
and unsatisfactory. 1t is we'll that
children speak when they are spoken
to, do as they are hidden, salute their
betters in an elegant manner, keep
their persons clean and do unto others
as they would have others do to them
But the mechanical ritual of all these
things may be made a continual horror.
Some teachers and parents keep chill
dren in constant state of worry by
saying, as they tweak the ears Of the
poor creatures or with the knuckles
rap them on the head: "Sit up, there"
or Behave now, will you?' Many
otherwise excellent people introduce
this sort of etiquette-drill at the table,
until the rigorous way in which the
lambs are made to bleat out please !"
and "thank you" is enough to destroy
the appetite OF anybody who practices
and values true politeness. Success or
failure in teaching politeness depends
On whether the teacher is or is not
polite than on tie particular manual of
etiquette which school board may
select. There are fine arts and true
graces in real poiiteness which some
Doors can never master. There is re-
fnement and an elegance in it which is
inborn with many people. Ifinstruct-
ion in the art is attempted with the
right spirit and by the proper sort of
people there is hope that it may be
mea.urabiy successful. But there are
some crusty and illfavored ilnparters
of instruction who should forever be
excused from all attempts at teaching
the doctrines or practices of etiquette.
philadelphia Times.