Poise and Good Grooming
When I was in 7th grade, my school offered an annual two week program called Mini Courses. It was touted as an opportunity to learn new skills that aren’t part of traditional curriculum, and for most of us, it was just as exciting as a field trip to a roller rink or the news that a substitute teacher would be presiding for the day. I can’t recall all of the classes that were offered, but I do remember that I filled out my request form for Basket Weaving. It must have been a popular choice, because I was bumped to my backup option, which was a course called Poise and Good Grooming. To clarify, this took place in the late 80’s, and not the 1950’s, but the sentiment was most definitely a pre-ERA holdover. I will not bury the lede here. We were taught neither poise, nor good grooming. Our instructor was Erin, a high school senior and the star student at a local modeling school. Erin’s credentials were seemingly just pageant trophies and several reigns on the high school homecoming court, but those sort of things carried more weight than any doctorate or dissertation in my small town. Our