Fancy finery helps illuminate lesson: Indian Village third-grade girls learn etiquette, discuss book

May 30, 2009 (The News-Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- IDVBE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- A long table in third-grade teacher Janelle Streeter's room Friday was set with shiny stemware, china teacups, candles and cloth napkins. Some of the 14 girls in the class at Indian Village Elementary School donned donated prom dresses over their school clothes. The other girls came to school dressed in their Sunday best. The formal tea party was the culmination of a literary section in which they read Eleanor Estes' book, "The Hundred Dresses."

As they ate school or sack lunches on china plates and drank milk or juice out of the long-stemmed glasses, Streeter led a discussion of the book, which is about a little girl, Wanda, who is made fun of because she is poor and dresses and speaks differently than the rest of the class. Although she wears the same faded blue dress each day, Wanda tells the other girls she has 100 dresses at home. They ridicule her for saying that and continue taunting her until she eventually changes schools. When her classmates find out the reason she left, numerous reactions and emotions arise, especially with the announcement that Wanda has won the school's drawing and coloring contest. Spread throughout the classroom are Wanda's colorful drawings of dresses.

"At this age, you start having conflicts among the girls," said Vicki Arthur, another third-grade teacher at Indiana Village. The girls in her class, as well as Melissa Summers' class, read the book and held tea parties earlier in the year. Arthur held the first tea party three years ago after reading "The Hundred Dresses" for the first time. Although written in the 1940s, the book is an excellent springboard for discussion on bullying and teasing, friendships, forgiveness and accepting one's differences. "It's a pretty timeless topic," Arthur said.

The tea party is also an ideal time for discussing etiquette.

"Put your napkins on your lap. Elbows off the table," Indian Village Principal Stephany Bourne instructed.

In nice restaurants, she said, you will often find multiple forks and other utensils. "Use them from the outside in."

Be willing to politely taste new foods, she added.

Streeter asked thought-provoking questions about the book: "How did you feel when Wanda didn't come to school?

"Nervous," said Caylee Pyle, which prompted Streeter to ask them how they feel when they know they have said something hurtful.

"We all do it. I know I have," Streeter said, asking the group why some of the girls who had most teased Wanda later went looking for her when she did not come to school for several days.

"I think they felt sorry," Adamaris Donis-Monterroso said.

Some months back, when Streeter noticed a rise in conflict and teasing between some students, she came to school dressed in mismatched clothes, hair askew and smeared makeup. Her students poked fun, as did other children. A few teachers made remarks about her looks, and although Streeter knew they were doing so in jest, she maintained all seriousness. As the teasing continued, Streeter's class came to her defense, which was the hoped-for response, a valuable life lesson they later discussed.

To see more of The News-Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.FortWayne.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne,
Ind. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index