SENNING, Cindy Post

PERSONAL:

Married John Senning; children: two sons. Education: Cornell University, B.S. (nursing); University of Vermont, M.A. (education), Ed.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—The Emily Post Institute, Inc., 444 South Union St., Burlington, VT 05401.

CAREER:

Harwood Union High School, Moretown, VT, school nurse and health educator, 1983-88; Duxbury Elementary School, Duxbury, VT, principal, 1988-94; Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, Waterbury, VT, clinical director; Emily Post Institute, Inc., Burlington, VT, executive director. Worked as a childbirth educator and staff nurse at New York Hospital, the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, and the Burlington Visiting Nurses Association.

WRITINGS:

(With sister-in-law, Peggy Post) Emily Post's the Gift of Good Manners: A Parent's Guide to Raising Respectful, Kind, Considerate Children, Harper-Resource (New York, N.Y.), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Cindy Post Senning is one of the four great-grandchildren of Emily Post, whose advice on manners has been heeded by generations. Senning spent summers at Post's home on Martha's Vineyard, and after a career in education and healthcare, she assumed the role of executive director of the foundation named in her famed ancestor's honor and which continues to dispense advice on etiquette through seminars and books.

Senning is coauthor with her sister-in-law, Peggy Post, of Emily Post's the Gift of Good Manners: A Parent's Guide to Raising Respectful, Kind, Considerate Children. The book is divided into six sections, based on age, from birth through high school, and each section is divided into chapters that address values and ethics, respect for oneself and others, verbal and written communications, table manners, and situations outside the home. The authors emphasize that it is preferable to begin teaching manners from birth, structured to fit the child's level of development. They also note the benefits of good manners, such as increased confidence and positive response from others.

Library Journal's Susan B. Hagloch wrote that "not since Miss Manners (Judith Martin) gave us her Guide to Rearing Perfect Children has this topic been so well done." A Publishers Weekly contributor called the guide "an excellent source of ideas and inspiration for raising children to be considerate adults."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, July, 2002, Susan B. Hagloch, review of Emily Post's the Gift of Good Manners: A Parent's Guide to Raising Respectful, Kind, Considerate Children, p. 113.

Publishers Weekly, July 8, 2002, review of Emily Post's the Gift of Good Manners, p. 47.

Washington Times, November 20, 2002, Jennifer Harper, review of Emily Post's the Gift of Good Manners, p. A3.*