If you want to take a Westbury High School student out for lunch, you’d be in good company.
Westbury High School students gained a lifelong skill last week as they learned how to sit, speak and eat like a professional during a dining etiquette workshop at Westbury Manor. Led by Linda Williams, a certified etiquette trainer, the workshop taught students the proper way to engage in a business-setting meal.
“In this day and age, we need to know how to handle ourselves as we become adults. You’re going to be in situations where you have to eat with someone and you need to know the proper way to behave because it can be the difference between getting a job or not getting a job, or getting a client or not,” Williams said. “This is something that’s not taught at school. This is a very professional way of having a meal.”
This is the first dining etiquette workshop Westbury has done in several years and it was attended by about 50 students and 10 members of the administration and faculty. Throughout the four-course dinner, guests learned everything from the proper way to sit down, how to fold a napkin onto your lap, which fork to eat salad with and what topics were appropriate for the meal table.
Williams said when it comes to teen dining etiquette, the most common mistakes she sees are them using their cell phones at the table, reaching across the table and idle, loud talking. Williams pointed out these mistakes, teaching students proper social skills at the table.
“I hope people come to understand civility and manners. We have to do all we can with this younger generation to try and help them understand the importance of it, so it doesn’t go away,” Williams said. “My purpose is to help keep a dying art from dying, by helping young people understand appropriate behavior.”
Williams also teaches a business etiquette class at school and an everyday etiquette class about manners. Ninth grader Jamie Lemus had taken previous etiquette classes with Williams and said she took away a lot from them.
“During the workshops she told us about proper manners and I learned about a lot of things that you should do,” Lemus said. “Some people are rude without even knowing it, so this dining etiquette class will help me when I meet new people to give a good first impression.”
