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"Socialsklz"? For Pete's sake. Did they have to spell it that way?

I think it's nice. I think generally manners are taught at home but some of the more random things that don't get used too often sometimes need to be reinforced by others. I remember having to attend a fancy luncheon in high school with some other students and very few had any idea about which fork to use and all that jazz. Not to say that we were rude but we were all a bit unpolished. So reminding kids what to do and how to hold open doors or RSVP is not a bad thing.

What I do hate is the name. "sklz"? Seriously?

At least they didn't use Comic Sans in the logo.

;)

I remember other kids going to Cotillion Classes covering etiquette back when I was a kid. Classes for manners are nothing new. And there are certainly plenty of parents who can't remember which bread plate to use, so why not teach it in a class?

Positive reinforcement, good.

lol, mere. i totally agree!

I have long mourned the passing of charm schools. I can think of many adults who could have benefited from the likes of Emily Post.

Aren't all the things on that list the things that parents automatically teach their children? - isn't that what parenting is all about? - teaching your child how to behave and cope with the world?

I have a sneaking suspicion that the kind of people who actually need a class like this are the least likely to actually send their child to a class like this...

I went to charm school and cotillion. Every day I'm amazed to encounter powerful, moneyed people at business functions who lack etiquette. These are skills that have to be taught and nutured throughout one's life. Classes like this reinforce the skills themselves, but also teach children that these are desirable skills that they should be proud of. That message is a bit more difficult to hear when it comes from a parent.

Charm school I would say hot, but this isn't charm school, which forks, proper place setting, when to wear gloves and what length. This is entering and exiting elevators, and the like. That I think is silly and a waste of money.

I sent my son to a 10-week course like this and I regret to say that he didn't benefit from it at all... :-( I do think the idea is great and I'm sure some kids get more out of it than others.

"Aren't all the things on that list the things that parents automatically teach their children?"

Well...

I might pose this query to the mother of the teenage kids who hang out in the park next to our house, smoking, drinking, and setting fires in the garbage cans until midnight. My one interaction with her made it crystal clear why those apples fell the way they did.

I would think kids might need an introduction to how to behave. Most kids I see don't behave well in public. At all. (previous comment sort of sums it all up). The Permissive Parenting idea is in full effect. No, I don't have kids, and there's a reason for it, not interested in having to teach them how to be a good person, with so much negative in the world.

Skimming the example it seems like those are skills that should be taught by the parents first.

"My one interaction with her made it crystal clear why those apples fell the way they did."

A perfect example of the very people who need this kind of instruction being the very ones who don't care enough to provide it - *sigh*