All hail the revival of the charm school!
Marsha Horne recently opened The Etiquette School of Frisco, where she specializes in teaching manners to kids. The classes often focus on dining etiquette, because "so many important things happen over a dining experience, including job
interviews, business deals, marriage proposals, and even divorces." Teach the kids now that when your spouse uses your romantic dinner at a swanky restaurant to tell you he or she is in love with their coworker, it is very rude to hurl a hot bowl of soup in their face. Horne hopes to give kids the skills "that will take them from the backpack to the boardroom". I somehow don't foresee my kid losing a huge merger deal because she didn't know the proper way to butter a piece of bread, but perhaps I am selling her future short.
The school hopes to fill a void because "many parents don't have the time to teach their children the proper manners that are necessary." Now, I think there are manners and there are manners. When it comes to teaching kids how to use a napkin and how to chew with your mouth closed, we've managed to cover all that even with a two-working-parent household. It seems like if you actually eat a meal with your child, you've had opportunities to review the basic stuff that just involves consideration for others. But if we are talking about all those dining rules like how to use the finger bowl and all, that's another story. And I'd rather enroll my kid in soccer lessons, because if one parent at the school is right, and manners are "just not taught anymore," hey, my kid won't be the only one making the huge gaffe of misusing the salad fork.
