CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Miss Manners would like you to put down your cellphone and consider: What would George Washington do?
Syndicated columnist Judith Martin said Friday that she would create a new set of rules for modern American civility, based on those followed by the nation’s first president. She considers the rules more necessary than ever for a “peaceful, non-annoying society.”
The effort, “The Civility Project: Where George Washington Meets the 21st Century,” will be created with the help of students from the University of Virginia and was the brainchild of Theodore J. Crackel, editor in chief of the university-based Papers of George Washington.
Martin said the past couple generations of parents failed to give their children proper etiquette guidelines, telling them: “Be natural, be yourself” instead of instilling rules of civility.
To come up with new rules, students will collect suggestions using a website and consult with Martin. Crackel said he hopes to finish the rules this fall and publish them alongside Washington’s famed 110 rules.
Washington’s rules included: “Put not off your Cloths in the presence of Others, nor go out your Chamber half Drest” and “Sleep not when others Speak, Sit not when others stand, Speak not when you Should hold your Peace, walk not on when others Stop.”
