Learning good manners

"The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any." Actor/Dancer Fred Astaire

Good middos are essential in German Orthodoxy. However in our day, well, Fred Astaire's quote is likely a 1/2 century old.

Now the quote is something of an exaggeration. There are people around with good manners, particularly in Washington Heights where the middos are about as good as I have seen anywhere. Obviously Mr. Astaire wouldn't have known about that. But what the graceful dancer meant I suppose was that manners in general aren't very good. The trick for any individual is to model oneself on the exceptions if necessary.