Minding Our Manners: The Importance of Small Courtesies

If homes and schools became hothouses for breeding politeness, good manners might then flower in our public life.

By taking control of our interior selves, we can bring change, however slight, to the culture in which we live. Harli Marten/Unsplash

Good manners.

Utter those words, and some of us probably think of the table, a napkin in the lap, chewing with our lips closed, and eating with a fork rather than with our fingers. Others, a little more antiquated, might envision giving up a seat on the subway to a pregnant woman, holding the door open for elderly man, or saying thank you to the young woman who helps us retrieve our carry-on luggage from the airplane’s overhead compartment.