ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
STUDENTS at Breckinridge Elementary School got a chance to display their best clothes and manners for one another Friday.
Second-grader Travis Carter ate lunch Friday in a tuxedo. He sat erect with his elbows close to his body. He grasped his fork as if it were a pencil. He kept his mouth closed as he chewed his food.
Classical music played in the background as Travis talked with his friend Steven LePore, who was wearing a white shirt and tie, during the meal. Travis and Steven exhibited exquisite table manners.
The white tablecloths and yellow centerpieces added to the formal atmosphere. When the waiter served the boys dessert on a silver tray, they remembered their etiquette lessons and thanked him.
Dozens of other children in fancy clothes joined Travis and Steven for lunch. The girls wore their Sunday-best dresses with sashes and hair bows. Many boys wore coats and ties.
They dressed up, but they didn't go out for lunch: They ate in the Breckinridge Elementary School cafeteria.
The lunch was part of a "Good Manners and Dress-Up Day" to promote manners and civility among the children. It was the culmination of a weeklong focus on dress and manners at the Botetourt County school.
Earlier this week, the school held seminars on proper etiquette and table manners for the children. Teachers emphasized the importance of manners throughout the week.
For Friday's lunch, the cafeteria was transformed into a restaurant setting with tablecloths, flowers and background music. The Botetourt Town and Country Women's Club helped decorate the cafeteria to create the restaurant atmosphere. Parents in evening wear served dessert.
Principal Weldon Martin wore a tuxedo and greeted the children as they arrived on their buses Friday. He visited classes during the morning and talked with children during lunch.
"They really bought into it," he said of the students. "Of course, I'm sure that their parents had a lot to do with it. We are reinforcing what their parents have taught them."
The idea for the day was triggered by a conversation between Martin and Deborah Carter, a Parent-Teacher Association leader, and a news article about the decline in manners, particularly among children.
"One day we were in the cafeteria, and I noticed kids were chewing with their mouths open with no table manners," said Carter, mother of Travis, the second-grader. She is also the mother of a fifth-grader at the school, Keely, who wore a tuxedo, too.
"It's almost a shame that you have to have a day like this, but the parents and teachers have been very supportive of the idea," she said. "We are concerned that our society no longer stresses good manners."
Phil Dingus, who was serving as a waiter and is the father of two children at Breckinridge, said he thinks the school should emphasize good manners every day but the pupils don't necessarily need to dress up every day.
"If they don't learn anything else in school, good manners will take them a long way," said Dingus, who wore a tuxedo.
Second-grade teacher Joan Mullins said the children had been excited all week about the dress-up day. The fancy clothes caused the boys and girls to pay more attention to each other, she said. "They've been eyeing each other all day."
Steven Levy said he had learned not to put his elbows on the table while eating and had enjoyed wearing nice clothes one day, though it's not something he would like to do regularly.
"I don't like to dress up that much," the third-grader said.
Some boys had loosened their ties by lunch. Kindergartner Anthony Lacovone wore a blue tie with red suspenders and remembered his manners. "They told us not to mess up the table, not to push and shove, and to say 'please.'''
Kindergartner Holly Korona looked like she was on her way to church. She wore a flowery pink dress with a white bow in her hair.
"This is nice," she said. "I like it."
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ARNE KUHLMANN/Staff. 1. Debbie Teaford offers dessert toby CNBher daughter Jessica (right) and Chelsea States. All of the students
dressed in evening wear or their best dresses during the
Breckinridge Elementary School "Good Manners and Dress-Up Day." The
cafeteria was transformed with tablecloths, classical music and
parents in evening wear serving dessert on silver trays. 2.
Breckinridge fifth-grader Keely Carter, dressed up in a tuxedo,
carries food back to the table. color.