Home | About Us | Contact Us | Newsroom | Calendar
Press Releases
For Release: December 10, 2002
Contact: Elizabeth Upham Howell
802/860-1814
elizabeth@emilypost.com
As Holidays
Approach, Parents Should Consider Giving Children The Gift of
Good Manners
New Public Agenda Survey Finds Parents are Overwhelmed,
Posts Say Manners Can Help
Burlington, VT—A new survey by Public Agenda “A Lot Easier Said Than Done: Parents Talk About Raising Children in Today’s America” finds that when parents rate the importance of teaching different character traits and values to their children, 84 percent of parents view teaching children “to be courteous and polite” as absolutely essential. Yet, only 62 percent of parents report that they “have succeeded in doing so.” The importance of teaching manners outranked teaching children “to save money and spend it carefully,” “to have strong religious faith,” and “to always do their very best in school.” “Self control and self discipline” was the only character trait that parents deemed more important than being courteous and polite. If so many parents think manners education is essential, why are so many people complaining about how rude children are today?
Can respect be taught? Are parents failing to teach manners to children? Can a 14-year-old boy be convinced that table manners matter? How can you help a child withstand teasing and bullying without becoming resentful? What to do when another parent’s or teacher’s rules vary greatly from your own? Was it easier to teach manners to children forty years ago?
Answers and solutions are found in the new book, “THE GIFT OF GOOD MANNERS: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Respectful, Kind, Considerate Children,” (HarperResource; August, 2002; $24.95) by Peggy Post and Cindy Post Senning, Ed.D. The Posts—the third generation family members of Emily Post—argue that manners are unquestionably essential for every child’s lifelong success and self confidence.
According to Peggy Post, who writes a monthly manners column in Parents and Good Housekeeping magazines, “Manners education is inseparable from the other things a parent or primary caregiver must do to raise a responsible, self-sufficient child. It’s not a kind of add-on that be attended to after the schoolwork and the soccer, ballet and piano lessons are done. Instead, teaching and modeling good manners are integral to daily family life.”
The book is organized around three key principles: 1) it is best to model and teach manners virtually from birth to adolescence; 2) manners education is most effective when geared to a child’s normal development; and 3) Mannerly behavior gives both children and adults the self confidence to navigate daily life.
The book is divided into six sections, based on age, from birth through the high school years. In each chapter, manners and teaching methods are geared to children’s particular capabilities during those years. Each section of “THE GIFT OF GOOD MANNERS” is divided into five chapters that deal with core manners topics including:
According to Cindy Post Senning, the book’s approach is positive: “Rather than talking about problems that need to be fixed, we help parents teach kids to develop the right instincts and behaviors from the start. We believe kids—even teenagers—can and want to be respectful, kind and considerate.”
“THE GIFT OF GOOD MANNERS” focuses on understanding and modeling the principles and values that are the foundation of manners, and then shows parents ways to help their children take on these values and make them their own. The Posts also weigh in on topics such as children with special needs, the over-programmed child, etiquette for the new American family, overcoming obstacles in parent-to-parent relationships, dealing with problems at school and helping your teenager through the college application process. These sections, called “For Every Age” are found at the end of each section.
Peggy Post is the author of ten etiquette
books and a monthly manners column in Parents and Good Housekeeping
magazines. Her sister-in-law Cindy Post Senning holds a doctorate
in education and is a former elementary school principal, teacher
and registered nurse. “THE GIFT OF GOOD MANNERS”
combines 80 years of Post family experience in etiquette and is
the third Post text on the importance of teaching manners to children.
Emily Post wrote “Children are People” in
1940 and Elizabeth Post wrote “Please, Say Please”
in 1972.
* * *
About the
Authors
Peggy Post is the author of ten etiquette books,
including “Emily Post’s Etiquette”
and “The Etiquette Advantage in Business.”
She writes monthly columns in Parents and Good Housekeeping
magazines and is the etiquette expert at WeddingChannel.com,
the Internet’s most popular wedding resources for engaged
couples. Peggy also contributes weekly etiquette quizzes to ivillage.com.
Peggy conducts hundreds of media interviews annually and has appeared
on programs including The Today Show, Live with Regis &
Kelly, Oprah!, The View and Good Morning America.
Cindy Post Senning holds a doctorate in education and is a former elementary school principal, teacher and registered nurse. She is also director of The Emily Post Institute. She has spent years in the classroom, as a teacher, school nurse and health educator, reaching children in grades K-12. She developed and directed the Maternal Child Health Program for Vermont Home Health & Hospice and has taught childbirth classes as well expectant parents classes for more than seven years. Currently, Cindy is a consultant with the Vermont chapter of the Foundation for Excellent Schools, which teams with local schools to improve programs for all students. Cindy is also a professor at Berne University—an online graduate college for students seeking maters or doctorates in business, education and social services.
THE GIFT OF GOOD MANNERS
A Parent’s Guide to Raising Respectful, Kind,
Considerate Children
Peggy Post & Cindy Post Senning, Ed.D.
HarperResource
Publication month: August 2002
ISBN: 0-06-018549-X; $24.95/$37.95 (Canada); 480 pages
