Skip to main content

Ward's Words of Wisdom. . .

Ward Cleaver -- one of my favorite TV dads and played by the late Hugh Beaumont -- sets Wally, The Beav, Eddie Hascal, and Lumpy Rutherford straight.

A new university semester starts in just a couple of days, and as I make the final finishing touches to my online course management pages and look over my class lists (I've got 150 students ranging from freshmen to seniors this term across three courses), thoughts turn to polite behavior.  Hopefully, politeness on my part will beget polite behavior from my students.  We'll see.  

I should probably post the photograph above in a prominent place for each one of these online course management pages, but there is probably a university regulation somewhere that says we shouldn't.  I am, nevertheless, a firm believer that there ought to be a required two-semester course sequence on most college and university campuses in the United States on basic etiquette and polite decorum.  Most (though certainly not all) undergrads in my experience desperately need such coaching in the 2st century.

 -- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

  1. Glenda MooreSeptember 1, 2015 at 6:27 AM

    I've always thought a required college course titled something like "Basics for participating in the adult world after college" should be taught in the first semester/quarter. Could include deportment (walking with confidence, looking people in the eyes, shaking hands, etc.), etiquette (at home, in the workplace, at the table, in the world at-large), hygiene, how to coordinate a minimal and civilized wardrobe without sacrificing your unique style, etc. Some colleges & universities claim in their mottos to prepare "the total man", but I've never heard of a college offering such a course.

    In my idealized world, such a course would actually just be a refresher...

    ReplyDelete
  2. WSTKS-FM WorldwideSeptember 1, 2015 at 8:13 AM

    Good to hear from you, Glenda, and I naturally concur 100%.

    Best Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All opinions are welcome here. Even those that differ from mine. But let's keep it clean and civil, please.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Popular Posts

Let's start dressing like grown men again. . .

This guy is dressed just fine. . .  if he's at the park on a Saturday afternoon with his kids, or mowing the backyard. Welcome to The Average Guy's Guide to Style!  This blog will be all about how average guys -- guys who aren't swimming in money, guys who don't necessarily look like models or movie stars, guys who aren't interested in jumping on the latest men's fashion trend bandwagon, and yet still want to look good -- can pull their 'look' together by assembling a modest, versatile wardrobe that is based on classic men's style***.   Jerry asking George to consider what he signals to the rest of the world by appearing in public dressed in sweatpants. Now, there are already hundreds, if not thousands of related style blogs and websites out there in cyberspace telling you how to do this or that.  And while some of those present useful information on dressing well, many others somehow fall short for a variety of reasons.  Some blo...
12 comments
Read more

Mid-November Monday. . .

A few minutes between classes this morning, so I snapped  pictures of today's attire and accessories.  The first wearing this season of the Optimo 'Dearborn' fedora, and the tie is a vintage number from Orvis, a nod to my late father's fly-fishing and fly-tying hobbies.  It's been two or three years since this particular necktie's last appearance, so high time to pull it out and knot it carefully around the ol' neck.  Managed to nail it on the first attempt too.  Could this be the start of a trend? -- Heinz-Ulrich
Post a Comment
Read more

My Preferred Oxford Cloth Button-Down Shirts. . .

One of several light blue cotton oxford cloth button-down collar shirts in my rotation, worn here with a wool flannel navy blazer and a vintage Italian silk necktie once sold under the Rooster label.  An orange-brown with silvery paisleys, ideal for the autumn. T he other day, a regular visitor to Classic Style for the Average Guy left a comment in which he asked for information and my recommendations on the classic oxford cloth button-down shirt, commonly abbreviated to 'ocbd.'  "Me?  Are you tawkin' to me?"   Oblique Robert DeNiro references aside, let's talk oxford cloth button-down shirts.  This particular type of shirt is one of the bedrock items every man should have a few of hanging in his closet, especially when he wishes to present himself to the world in a way better -- yes, I said better -- than what has become the sad accepted average among so much of the male populace.   First things first though.  Lots of people automatically...
6 comments
Read more