[107] MTSU professor sets table for learning good manners at Sept. 20 Oaklands event

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —Some Murfreesboro youngsters will learn proper manners from an accomplished MTSU professor.

Department of Human Sciences chair Deborah Belcher will teach etiquette lessons and table setting during the “Autumn in the Oaks” educational field day, which will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, at Oaklands Mansion, 901 N. Maney Ave. in Murfreesboro.

Belcher was trained by the Burlington, Vermont-based, family-owned Emily Post Institute, which was designed to continue and modernize the work of Emily Post. Her 1922 book “Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home” is considered a seminal work on the subject of good manners, and her syndicated newspaper column spread her guidance to even more readers.

The event, which is expected to draw some 470 K-6 students from public, private and home-school settings, will focus on chores of the mid-1800s. Clothes washing, butter churning, quill writing and rug beating will be examined. 

Artisans and living demonstrators will be on hand to share their talents. Other activities for the youngsters will include sack races, hoops-and-sticks, a scavenger hunt, dough kneading and dressing up in 1860s-style fashions.

For more information, contact Belcher at 615-898-2302 or deborah.belcher@mtsu.edu.