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The Polite Times™
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| A regular newsletter published by The PoliteChild, Inc. | |
| Vol V, No 2 |
February
2006
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President’s Corner – Manners in our Forefathers’ Day Dear PoliteChild family, supporters, and friends: Recently, there was a cute column in a regional paper about George Washington and manners. We thought that, given we celebrate President’s Day this month, we’d share some of this with you. It seems the Father of our Country wrote a manners book at the ripe old age of 14! It was called, “George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Apparently, it’s also still available through Applewood Books. The ideas George presented were based on concepts from 16th century Jesuit priests for how young French noblemen were to conduct themselves, but in writing the book, he took the ones that best fit him and tailored the to his life beliefs. Among those that he included in his book are these: • Every
action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those
that are present. The article went on to state, “Washington knew that etiquette (rules of behavior) is one of the most effective forms of democracy. It is an equalizer. There is no economic barrier to learning manners. ” We completely agree! And, when you think about it, although the words George wrote about are over 200 years old, the underlying principles are timeless and are as appropriate today as they were in his day. I think we’d all do well to take these concepts to heart, especially as a way to honor the founders – and foundations – of our country! I always enjoy getting your comments and feedback so please feel free to email me at corinneg@politechild.com. Corinne Gregory, President & Founder |
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It’s with great sadness that PoliteChild announces the sudden and tragic loss of one of our founding Board Members, Thomas R. Clark. Mr. Clark passed away unexpectedly this month, after suffering from Interstitial Lung Disease.
At his memorial service, many of the participants eulogized his sense
of humor, his grace, his kindness, and the love he showed to his family,
his friends, and co-workers. Even in his final hours, he managed with
compassion for others and personal dignity. Truly Tom Clark was one
of a kind, and he will be sorely missed.
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Over the last few years, we’ve been approached by Girl Scout and Brownie troops who have wanted us to offer a custom course for them. For some, it’s a unique way to support their efforts toward earning their manners badges. For others, it’s a new and interesting session for the girls and a new way of thinking about things they may never have thought too much about, but is a crucial part of growing up and maturing. The course has become popular enough that it finally made sense to start offering it as a “standard” part of what we do. So, now our “Girls Scouts and Brownies Short Course on Manners” is official! While we do have a basic standard outline of what’s covered in the class, it is available to be customized to the specific needs or areas of interest a particular troop may be focusing on, such as table manners or party topics. Typically our course takes about 1 ½ hours, and follows this basic agenda in which we discuss: I.
How REAL life needs REAL manners…. There are several sub-topics that are covered under these main headings, of course, such as “How you look/act/speak gives people a picture of who you are, whether correct or not,” and how non-verbal signals you give can either reinforce or undermine the verbal statements you are making. As is consistent with all PoliteChild courses, we focus not only on the “what to do’s” but the “why’s” so that our young people understand the foundations of the skills we are teaching them which helps them internalize them. For more information, such as a detailed outline of the course, for
pricing, how we can customize it for your special needs, or to book
a PoliteChild instructor for your next troop meeting, please call
us at 866.485.4089 or email us at info@politechild.com. Of course,
we are also happy to offer this course to larger area, regional, or
district groups as well!
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New Offering 2: On-line Directory Service for Etiquette Consultants, Manners Class Providers |
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The demand for manners classes, finishing schools, etiquette consultants and similar “lifeskills” programs is growing at a phenomenal rate! At the PoliteChild, we are constantly bombarded with requests for classes or local resources in areas in which PoliteChild doesn ’t yet operate. While we’re continually looking for individuals and organizations who would like to become PoliteChild providers to help serve the demand in those “untapped” areas, we also recognize that we can’t possibly grow quickly enough as a single organization to address the immediate needs of those families and individuals who want classes NOW! As a solution, we are launching a new service this month – a Directory of Etiquette/Manners Consultants and Providers available on the PoliteChild website. We have so many visitors coming to our site daily, it seems to make sense to enhance the information we already provide to help facilitate connections between the “demand” side (folks contacting US) with the available “suppliers” in their area. For a yearly subscription price of $24.95, providers of manners-related products and services (finishing schools, manners programs, charm schools, etc.) can be listed on our site, along with an optional logo and/or links to their own website. Just provide us with your name/address/phone/business information, along with your logo and weblink, and we’ll place that on our special Directory webpage. Initially, we’ll organize this information by state/province/country but ultimately we plan to have a variety of search options, including map-based search facilities to make it easy for people to find providers in their areas. To be included in our directory, send this information to directorysvcs@politechild.com and be sure to provide us with a way to get back to you with
any questions we may have. While initially our listing/posting/billing
process will be via email, expect for us to automate this process
in the very near future!
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| Where to Spend those Title I Funds? | |||||||||
Schools are always looking for ways to pay for PoliteChild programs. While the benefits of PoliteChild more than justify the cost of the program, regardless of how reasonable the cost may be, schools are continually forced to scrape together money for any new endeavor. But, as they say, “timing is everything,” and schools are coming up on a window that can be used to advantage, if schools are aware of it. Title I funding – from No Child Left Behind – is a source of money that is allocated and awarded on a yearly basis. If the funds that have been allocated for the year are not fully used, not only does the school lose them for that year, but the amount of funds allocated for next year are reduced by that amount. So, not fully using Title I Funds turns into a double-whammy for cash-strapped schools. What schools have done in years past is to use “left-over” Title I money now to pay for next year’s PoliteChild programs. In essence, the school is making the investment now, to lock in current year’s pricing and get teacher training and materials on the schedule for next Fall. It’s a way to get a jump on getting PoliteChild into the school by using the money available now to pay for part or all of PoliteChild programs for later. For most schools, the deadline for using Title I funds is the end of March. Your school or district may have a different deadline, so if you think this may be something that would work for your school, check with your Title I administrator or coordinator. If you need help with documenting how PoliteChild can help with Title
I requirements, let us know. We can help you show how our programs
decrease discipline problems, improve student time-on-task, and increase
academic achievement and student test scores. You can always reach
us at info@politechild.com.
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We are continually getting calls, emails and other inquiries about whether we have products for use as home-school curriculum or in-home use. The answer is “yes!” If this sounds like you, you may be interested in our independent training product, -- the SocialSmarts for Gradeschoolers DVD – available for purchase directly from our website! While we do take email and phone orders for this product, we thought we’d make it easy for anyone who wanted instant access to our products to order the DVD Instructor set directly through the PoliteChild Store. And, it’s the featured product on our home page! To see exactly what it is you get, and to order the full 4-DVD Instructor program, go to http://www.politechild.com/store/storemain.htm. You’ll be able to add this new tool to your shopping cart, along with our popular “got manners?” T-Shirts, “PoliteChild on Board” stickers, and more… These products, while available for public use, are licensed materials, which means that they are sold on a “right-to-use” basis, much like computer software. As a licensed product, you may purchase the curriculum for limited use – home or small-scale homeschooling, for example. Student/parent materials need to be purchased from The PoliteChild; the materials in the Instructor binders, for example, may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission from The PoliteChild. However, should you want to build a PoliteChild business of your own,
or offer PoliteChild courses as a commercial endeavor, we do have a
full licensing program available. For more information on the licensing
program, contact us at info@politechild.com or visit our website at
http://www.politechild.com/company-license.htm.
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| PoliteChild in the News | |||||||||
Here’s where you can catch The PoliteChild in the near future! PoliteChild to be featured in Seattle’s Parent Map in April.
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| What would you like to see? | |||||||||
The PoliteTimes is continually adding more readers and gaining a broader audience, but we’re continually striving to offer you the right information, news and tips for our newsletters that are interesting and relevant. Do you have something you’d like to see us cover or have a question you’d like us to answer (privately or through our newsletter)? Is there someone you think should have our newsletter but doesn’t currently subscribe? If so, contact us at info@politechild.com or by phone at 866.485.4089! We appreciate all those
folks who have already written us to give us feedback. We do read
each and every one of your letters and take
your input seriously! If you don’t get a response from us in
48 hours, please email us again. We’re finding that SPAM filters
seem to be overly efficient in blocking out correspondence sometimes,
even the correspondence that’s wanted and welcome!
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more information, click here
to go to PoliteChild.com.
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© 2002-2006 The PoliteChild, Inc. | Privacy
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Tom has been a strong supporter, advisor, and champion of PoliteChild
even before its inception. He was a man of uncommon character, always
holding himself to the highest standards of integrity, loyalty, and
perseverance. Truly Tom personified those virtues PoliteChild espouses.