Good Manners For Young Americans

I recently purchased an old text book called Good Manners For Young Americans at a yard sale. I have this thing for old text books and usually purchase them if they have a copyright before 1940. This one has a copyright date of 1932 and I thought it would be fun to share a few entries of the things they were teaching in our school system at that time. This is taken from the Chapter titled Good Manners in Public Places. HA! I'd like to see how children today would react if our schools brought these text books back into the classroom.

Care for your finger nails, your face, your hair in your room at home, not in any public place. After making your toilet as well as you can, forget it.

There is no other place in which the spirit of courtesy seems so lacking as in our trolley cars, elevated trains and subways. In getting on a car, stand aside, and let those who are infirm or older precede you. Always rise to give your seat to a much older person, to a cripple or to a mother with a child.

OK, this one is my favorite. I'm a gum chewer so now I feel ashamed.....But I'll still probably stop at the convenient store on my way to church Sunday and purchase some spearmint chewing gum.

Never chew gum in cars or in other public places. If you must chew gum, let it be within the privacy of your own room.

Bruce and I have noticed that with this generation of children there is absolutely no respect for the adult strangers they come into contact with. Not necessarily YOUR child. I'm speaking of this generation in general. We get frustrated when we wave at a youth and they look at us like they could throw a rock through our car.

Greet parents of your friends or older people of your acquaintances with a pleasant, "Good morning, Mrs. S$mith." "Hello!" is not a courteous greeting to an older person.

If you are a good citizen, you will, of course, not throw trash or paper into the street, but will carry it to cans provided for the purpose. BOY, wouldn't it be nice if we saw more of that?

American boys and girls should take enough pride in their own property and in the property of others to keep things in order.


They've stopped teaching these things in our schools, but we still have the right to teach them in our home.