When I was growing up, my parents, teachers, and nearly every other adult in my life often stressed the importance of saying "please" and "thank you." "I don't hear the magic words," they'd say. People don't 'have' to do things for you; manners will get you where money won't."

In fact, Mrs. Jones, my third-grade teacher at Yemassee Consolidated Elementary School in Yemassee, spent several days teaching all of the third-graders the proper way to answer the telephone. We practiced with a large (by today's standards) fire-engine-red desktop phone with a huge circular dial.

These words of wisdom came to mind recently when I was scouring local boutiques in search of bargains. The boutique's owner was telling me that some of the items I was perusing were on clearance from Christmas. I thanked her for giving me some of the leftover holiday gift bags. She said she and her employees had spent a good deal of time and effort creating personalized gift bags for some less-fortunate teenaged girls and women her company adopted for the Christmas season.

She said she would probably look for a different charity this year because "not one person bothered to say thank you" in a card, letter, or with a phone call. I told her I understood what she was saying, and I mentioned that there are so many "good" causes.

My other comment was that I didn't think she could necessarily blame the recipients for the oversight because perhaps they had never been taught the importance of acknowledging a gift. It was a lesson I learned from a number of "old-school" teachers like my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and a number of former baby sitters.

As our conversation continued, I told her that at my previous job as director of public relations and publications at Voorhees College in Denmark, it was one of my responsibilities to ensure that students who received United Negro College Fund scholarships wrote letters to thank their respective donors.

I also told her about the thank-you cards the preschoolers in the Ark Room Sunday school class at my local church (Wesley United Methodist) are working on. They are for Jalen, a preteen who, although promoted to another class, has generously donated some of his toy instruments to our current students.

These children are also known to write thank-you cards when someone gives them a birthday present, a Christmas gift or holds a surprise party for them. I think much of this happens because someone is teaching, reinforcing and demonstrating that such things are important.

If we take the time, I believe we can find teachable moments like these nearly everywhere.

Vasilisa Hamilton earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina in Columbia and a master's in professional writing from Towson University in Maryland. She has worked in television, radio, newspapers, public relations, publications, and film and is on the adjunct faculty of Limestone and Park colleges and USC's University 101 program.

You must be logged in to comment.