Topeka ? After classes ended on a recent day, a dozen Holy Name students gathered for coaching from Jolene Savage on their form and style. She is hoping they will impress judges with their presentation and poise.

The judges are the people they will meet every day, and their loops and jumps are all social, as they navigate life. In a basement classroom, Savage is teaching them about good manners, self-confidence and showing respect.

Savage started her etiquette program in 2003, partly because the rudeness she saw in everyday life bothered her and partly because she wanted to pass along knowledge she learned from her parents.

Her business, Social Graces, taps into growing interest nationally in teaching etiquette to children and young adults who have grown up surrounded by noisy technology, dashboard dining and rude music and television. Like other consultants, she says etiquette is more than following rules.

“It’s how we interact with the world,” she said following one of her classes. “It’s just life skills.”

In some ways, those life skills have been taught for generations, with parents sending their children to finishing schools – as Savage’s did. Nor did modern efforts begin only in the past few years.

But an attempt in 1990 to start teaching proper manners to football players at Kansas State University has grown into a dinner each semester for 150 students across campus to learn the ins-and-outs of dining with business recruiters.

In St. Louis, Maria Everding has helped set up between 50 and 60 other etiquette programs nationwide. She now trains etiquette consultants.

Savage wants to establish a school where children would not only learn good manners but also would receive training in the arts, as well as other pursuits such as chess and horsemanship.

Savage teaches her classes in schools like Holy Name and in other locations, and parents pay $165 for 12 weeks’ worth of lessons.