Well Mannered Kid Equals Well-Met Man

A friend on a social network recently posted an article on the 25 Manners Every Kid Should Know By Age 9, and noted that adults should know them too. I wholeheartedly concur and wonder, for adults lacking - did they never learn, or did they forget or unlearn them?

In the list are the usual suspects like saying please and thank you, but here are the ones I think are important to being a Well-Met Man:

• Manner #4 If you do need to get somebody's attention right away, the phrase "excuse me" is the most polite way for you to enter the conversation.
• Manner #6 The world is not interested in what you dislike. Keep negative opinions to yourself, or between you and your friends, and out of earshot of adults.
• Manner #8 When people ask you how you are, tell them and then ask them how they are.
• Manner #12 Be appreciative and say "thank you" for any gift you receive. In the age of e-mail, a handwritten thank-you note can have a powerful effect.
• Manner #17 If you bump into somebody, immediately say "Excuse me."
• Manner #19 As you walk through a door, look to see if you can hold it open for someone else.
• Manner #23 When someone helps you, say "thank you." That person will likely want to help you again.

So there they are, and you can the read rest in the article, so the question still stands - did people with poor manners never learn them or did they leave them behind? I am sure there is an equal amount of both, but if we make sure they were learned in the first place at least the roots of good manners are there and hopefully they will grow and not wilt with age.