PUTNEY — Emily Post, author of Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage, once said, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”
Post's book educated the common people of America in how to behave during the country's transition during the Industrial Revolution, a time where country farmers were moving into cities and unaware of the differing customs and standards of behavior.
Ninety years later, Post's great-granddaughter Cindy Post Senning continues the tradition of educating people, especially children, on the importance of proper etiquette, including a session this past Sunday at the Putney Inn.
There, students from The Grammar School, as well as some of the general public, joined Senning, their hostess, in a Children's Etiquette Workshop, sponsored by parent Nancy Brooks and The Grammar School.
“The sooner they start learning the habits, the easier it will be for them,” Senning says. “It's like any other skill, you have to practice. They practice until they get it right and then they use it until it becomes a habit.”
A director of the Burlington-based Emily Post Institute, Senning is the author of several books on the importance and effectiveness in training children in proper etiquette. She serves as the institute's premier presenter of its classes for young people.
Brooks decided to contact the Emily Post Institute after noticing, and speaking with other parents about, their children's lackluster manners.
Once she convinced the school's principal about the value of this seminar, she set up a time and place. The Putney Inn proved to be prime in atmosphere, food, and location.
“It had a more formal ambiance than McDonald's or a conference room, and I knew that it had a good, close location and good food,” Brooks said.
'Little signs' for kids
The seminar began with children of various ages filing into the sunny room and choosing their seats with looks of excited apprehension. Soon after, Senning began to teach them the correct way to sit down and unfold their napkins, complementing it with a brief discussion on the history of etiquette, a word that means “little signs” in French and derives from the rule of King Louis XIV.
Senning moved on to the first of their four-course meal: tomato soup, or “pizza soup” as the children called it, followed by salad and a main course of chicken and macaroni and cheese, and pudding for dessert.
Once learning the proper way to eat their food, the children filed into a separate room to socialize while their parents took their own turn.
When asked what the most important thing he learned was, Matthew Brooks said, “Always pass to the right, which I kind of already knew, but never followed.”
Etiquette is important because “first impressions are really important,” eighth-grader Josie Weil said. “If you go to dinner for work, [etiquette] could affect what could happen for you in that company, and it's just really good to know.”
While the event went well, Nancy Brooks already anticipates having the school host another.
“My hopes are to bring Cindy back to do more workshops,” she said. “Some children were too young right now, but their parents have asked us to hold another one next year.”