How a Primary Source Document Can Transform an Ordinary Classroom into a Lesson in Classical Moral Education
By Thomas L. Krannawitter, Ph.D.
Many Americans sense that our common civic life has become harsher, more vulgar, more aggressive, and less governed by basic restraints. We see it in politics, online, in schools, and in the way people increasingly speak to strangers, opponents, and neighbors.
At the extreme end, we see young people forming unruly mobs, destroying property, threatening bystanders, fighting in public places, and sometimes turning ordinary civic spaces into scenes of fear and violence.
Those episodes are not the whole story of American youth. Many young Americans are decent, thoughtful, hardworking, and hungry for purpose. But the disorder is real enough that serious adults should ask what kind of moral education young people are—or are not—receiving.
The question is not merely whether students know facts. The deeper question is whether they are learning the habits required for self-government.
A free society depends upon more than laws, police, courts, and constitutions. It depends upon citizens who possess enough self-restraint to live among others. Rights require responsibility. Liberty requires self-discipline. Citizenship requires mutual civic trust, and trustworthiness. That is why civility is not a trivial subject.
Civility is often mistaken for superficial politeness or artificial manners. But at its best, civility is a school of moral discipline. It teaches a person to notice others, restrain the self, govern speech, respect boundaries, keep promises, receive correction, and remember that one’s conduct affects the common life of everyone nearby.
George Washington’s youthful copy of the 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation is therefore more than an old-fashioned etiquette document. Some of its maxims will sound strange to modern students. Some will amuse them. Yet taken as a whole, the document opens a serious and timely question: What kind of personal discipline must precede responsible civic self-government?
Purpose of This Tutorial
This tutorial helps teachers introduce students to one of the strangest, humblest, and most revealing documents associated with George Washington: his youthful copy of the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.
The Rules are not a political speech, a law, a state paper, a military order, or a philosophic treatise. They are 110 brief maxims about manners, speech, bodily comportment, cleanliness, conversation, table conduct, deference, reputation, promises, reason, reverence, and conscience.
Some will strike students as old-fashioned, amusing, or even odd. Yet taken as a whole, the document opens a serious question: What kind of personal discipline is necessary for a free people?
Teachers should present the Rules not as a list of quaint eighteenth-century etiquette commands to be imitated literally, but as a window into moral formation. The document helps students see that Washington did not simply become “George Washington” by accident. He became a certain kind of man through habits, restraints, expectations, and deliberate self-command.
The central teaching question is this: Before a person can exercise responsible civic self-government alongside fellow citizens, what must he or she learn about governing one’s self?
What The Rules of Civility Are
George Washington’s Rules of Civility consists of 110 short maxims copied by Washington as a young man, probably around the age of fourteen.
The document is best understood as a copybook exercise rather than as an original composition by Washington. The image and caption on p. 5 of the Waypoints published version point teachers toward the likely source: a contemporary etiquette book associated with Francis Hawkins’s English translation of a French work on youthful behavior.
The image on p. 10 shows the Rules in Washington’s own hand and notes that the date on his copybook indicates that he would have been about fourteen years old.
This distinction matters. Washington did not invent these maxims. He copied them. But the act of copying was itself part of education. In a culture where penmanship, moral instruction, and imitation of worthy models were often intertwined, copying a rule was not merely mechanical. It required attention. It placed words before the mind and hand repeatedly. It trained memory, discipline, and conduct.
Teachers should make this point clear to students: the document is not important because Washington wrote a brilliant theory of manners at fourteen. It is important because it gives us a glimpse of the kind of moral and social expectations that helped him to become a model of virtue.
Historical and Educational Context
Washington was born in 1732 in Virginia. He did not receive the kind of classical college education that some other Founders received. He did not attend Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary, or King’s College. His formal schooling was limited compared with men such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or Alexander Hamilton.
That fact makes the Rules more interesting, not less. Washington’s greatness was not primarily literary or theoretical. He was not the most learned man among the Founders, nor the most elegant writer, nor the deepest-thinking political philosopher.
Washington’s greatness was rooted in his moral virtues: prudence, courage, justice, restraint, dignity, perseverance, public-spiritedness, and disciplined ambition.
The Rules belong to the world of moral education. They reflect a view of young people striving to become better people. A student does not become moderate, respectful, honest, careful in speech, and attentive to others merely by being told to “be yourself.” A student doesn’t become a good person by being instructed that all notions of “good” are mere arbitrary cultural prejudices.
A student becomes virtuous by learning good habits.
Those habits are first practiced in small matters: posture, tone, silence when appropriate, table manners, promises, jokes, managing anger, and the treatment of other people.
Many of the Rules reflect a hierarchical society of rank, status, age, office, and “quality.” Teachers should not hide that fact. Some maxims speak in terms of superiors and inferiors, nobles, persons of distinction, men of quality, and those of lower degree. This was not democratic language in the modern sense. Yet students should also see that many of the deeper principles are not limited to an aristocratic society. They concern respect, restraint, discretion, humility, compassion, and the proper government of one’s passions.
In that respect, the Rules can be translated into the moral language of citizenship within a self-governing constitutional republic.
Why This Document Matters
The Rules of Civility matters because it helps students see that political liberty depends upon moral discipline.
A constitutional republic cannot function if citizens are governed chiefly by appetite, resentment, vanity, envy, rumor, rage, or a desperate desire for attention. Limited government presupposes something more than law. It presupposes citizens capable of limiting themselves.
This is why the document is more than an etiquette manual. Etiquette is the surface. Character is the deeper subject.
Students should be encouraged to ask:
- What is the relation between manners and morals?
- Can a person be rude and just?
- Can a person be outwardly polite but inwardly corrupt?
- Why do habits of speech matter so much?
- How does a person learn to restrain and channel anger?
- What is the difference between confidence and vanity?
- What is the difference between justice and cruelty?
- Why does reputation matter?
- Why does conscience require cultivation?
These questions make the Rules surprisingly contemporary. Students live in a world of constant communication, instant judgment, digital rumors, online bullying, public embarrassment, mockery, gossip, provocative self-display, and social performance.
Washington’s world did not have smartphones, social media, group chats, or viral posts. But it did have vanity, gossip, envy, dishonesty, ambition, cruelty, and thoughtless speech. The human problems are old, even when the technologies are new.
How To Introduce Rules of Civility
Teachers may wish to begin by admitting that the document is unusual. Students may laugh at some of the maxims. That is not necessarily a problem. Some of the rules about spitting, table manners, bodily habits, and hat etiquette will sound foreign to them. The teacher’s task is to move students from amusement to interpretation.
A useful opening question is: Which of these rules seem merely old-fashioned, and which still identify real human problems? From there, teachers can explain that the Rules operate at three levels:
FIRST, they teach external manners: how to sit, stand, eat, speak, listen, dress, and move in the presence of others.
SECOND, they teach social respect: how to treat others without humiliating them, interrupting them, crowding them, mocking them, or turning them into objects of contempt.
THIRD, they teach inner personal self-government: how to restrain anger, vanity, curiosity, appetite, envy, and careless speech.
The final rule, #110, makes the deepest purpose explicit: “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience” p. 18. That maxim gives teachers the proper lens for reading the whole document. The goal is not merely to avoid embarrassment. The goal is to form a person capable of hearing and obeying a morally-sound conscience.
Overview of the Document
The Rules do not unfold like an argument in a pamphlet. They are not organized like a philosophical essay. They are a sequence of maxims. Some rules are grouped loosely by subject, but the document moves in a way that can seem miscellaneous to modern readers.
For classroom purposes, teachers may organize the rules thematically.
1. Respectful Presence and Bodily Self-Control
The early rules concern the body in company: coughing, yawning, posture, singing to oneself, drumming fingers, turning one’s back, approaching too closely, and keeping hands, nails, and teeth clean pp. 2–4. These may appear superficial, but the deeper principle is that one’s body is not simply one’s own when one is in the presence of others. To be in company is to owe some regard to those present.
Rule #1 states the principle clearly: “Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect, to those who are present” p. 2.
This rule can serve as the key to the whole document. The central idea is not stiffness or artificiality. It is a call to pay attention to others. The self must not fill all the available moral space.
2. Compassion, Humility, and the Treatment of Weakness
Several early rules warn against laughing at others, drawing attention to infirmities, or rejoicing in another person’s misfortune p. 4. Rule #22 says not to show gladness at the misfortune of another, even if he is one’s enemy. Rule #23 says that when seeing a crime punished, one may be inwardly pleased, but should “always show pity to the suffering offender” p. 4.
This is a rich teaching moment. The rule does not deny punishment. It does not say that crime should be excused. Rather, it distinguishes justice from cruelty. A decent person may approve of deserved punishment while still remembering the humanity of the offender.
Students can be asked whether modern public life preserves this distinction. In a culture of public shaming, online outrage, and vindictive speech, the ability to condemn wrongdoing without delighting in humiliation is morally important.
3. Rank, Ceremony, and Social Order
Many rules concern hats, titles, precedence, seating, walking, deference, and the proper treatment of those above or below oneself in rank pp. 5–8. Students may find these rules alien because they reflect a more hierarchical world.
Teachers should not pretend that eighteenth-century Virginia was socially egalitarian in the modern sense. It was not. The world of the Rules assumes differences of age, office, social rank, profession, and “quality.”
Yet these rules also teach something broader: social life requires forms. People need ways to show respect, acknowledge age, office, and experience, avoid unnecessary conflict, and put others at ease. Even democratic societies have ceremonies, titles, greetings, dress expectations, seating protocols, and rules of professional conduct.
A productive classroom question is: Can a democratic society reject aristocratic rank while still needing manners, forms, and ceremonies of respect?
4. Correction, Reproof, and Self-Command
A particularly important cluster of rules appears on p. 8. Rule #45 instructs that before advising or reproving someone, one should consider whether it ought to be done publicly or privately, immediately or later, and in what terms. It adds that correction should be given without anger, “with all sweetness and mildness.”
This is an excellent maxim for students. It teaches prudence. Even when correction is justified, timing, tone, audience, and motive matter. Public correction can become humiliation. Private correction can become an act of friendship. Anger can make even true criticism unfriendly in spirit.
Rule #46 adds that one should take admonitions thankfully, but if one is not at fault, one should later choose a convenient time and place to explain that to the person who gave the correction p. 8.
This pair of rules teaches both sides of correction: how to give it and how to receive it.
5. Speech, Reputation, Rumor, and Truth
Several of the most important rules concern speech.
- Rule #47 warns against sharp, biting jokes regarding important matters.
- Rule #48 says, “Wherein you reprove another be unblameable yourself; for example is more prevalent than precepts.”
- Rule #49 rejects reproachful language, cursing, and reviling.
- Rule #50 says, “Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any” p. 9.
This cluster is especially useful for students living in the age of social media.
A “flying report” today may be a rumor in a group chat, an accusation on social media, a repost, a screenshot, a viral clip without context, or a claim passed along because it is exciting or damaging. Rule #50 teaches slowness in judgment. It asks students not to participate eagerly in the destruction of another person’s reputation.
Rule #79 returns to the same theme: “Be not apt to relate news if you know not the truth thereof” and “always a secret discover not” p. 14. Together, these rules teach that speech is a moral act. To repeat what one does not know is to become responsible for spreading possible falsehood. To reveal what ought to be kept private is to violate trust.
6. Modesty, Appearance, and the Temptation to Perform
Rules #51–54 concern clothing, modesty, cleanliness, walking in public, and the temptation to “play the peacock” p. 9. Rule #52 is especially useful: “In your apparel be modest and endeavor to accommodate nature, rather than to procure admiration.”
The language is old, but the problem is contemporary. Much of modern life encourages young people to perform for attention. Clothing, photographs, videos, posts, and public behavior can all become ways of asking to be admired. How many young Americans, after all, are tempted to be provocative merely to be noticed by others?
Teachers should help students distinguish between appropriate self-presentation and vanity. It is good to dress well for a formal occasion because it shows respect for others. It is good to be clean, orderly, and attentive to context. It is different than making oneself the center of attention for the sake of admiration.
The deeper virtue here is modesty, not in the narrow sense only, but in the broad moral sense of refusing to make the self an idol.
7. Friendship, Company, and Reputation
Rule #56 states: “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company” p. 11.
This is one of the most teachable rules in the whole document. Students understand peer pressure. They understand reputation. They understand the difficulty of standing apart from a group. Rule #56 does not say that a person should be arrogant, antisocial, or disdainful. It says that company shapes character and reputation. A person becomes like those with whom he habitually associates.
Teachers can ask students whether “bad company” today is always physical. Can one keep bad company digitally? Can an online community shape one’s character? Can repeated exposure to vulgarity, cruelty, cynicism, or dishonesty train the soul in the wrong direction?
8. Reason Governing Passion
Rule #58 provides one of the clearest statements of the document’s moral psychology: “Let your conversations be without malice or envy,” and “in all causes of passion admit reason to govern” p. 11.
This rule moves beyond etiquette into moral philosophy. Human beings have passions: anger, envy, fear, pride, desire, grief, ambition. The rule does not say that passion can be eliminated. It says passion should be governed by reason.
This idea connects the Rules to classical moral teaching, as well as to the requirements of republican citizenship. The person who cannot govern anger will speak unjustly. The person who cannot govern envy will resent the excellence of others, or perhaps even steal from them. The person who cannot govern appetite will lack moderation. The person who cannot govern fear will lack courage.
Self-government begins with the rule of reason over passion.
9. Listening, Conversation, and Intellectual Humility
Rules #73 and #74 are especially useful for classroom discussion. Rule #73 says, “Think before you speak,” and speak distinctly, not too hastily. Rule #74 says that when another person speaks, be attentive, do not interrupt, do not answer before the speech is ended, and do not prompt another person unless asked p. 13.
These rules are not merely about politeness. They are about the discipline of conversation. Civil conversation requires attention, patience, restraint, and humility. The listener must not treat the speaker as an obstacle to his own next statement.
Teachers can connect these rules to seminar discussion. A good classroom conversation requires students to listen before answering, understand before objecting, and speak in a way that invites thought rather than merely asserting dominance.
10. Privacy, Discretion, and Trust
Rules #77, #79, #81, and #82 form another important cluster p. 14. Rule #77 says not to whisper in the company of others. Rule #79 warns against relating news without knowing its truth and against revealing secrets. Rule #81 says not to be curious about the affairs of others or approach those speaking in private. Rule #82 says, “Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.”
This cluster teaches that trust is fragile. Whispering creates suspicion. Curiosity about private matters becomes intrusion. Repeating unverified rumors damages reputations. Revealing secrets destroys confidence. Breaking promises weakens the bonds of friendship, family, work, and public life.
The modern application is obvious. Digital life makes whispering, gossip, intrusion, and betrayal easier than ever. A private message can be screenshotted. A rumor can be forwarded. A scandalous video can go viral. A confidence can become public within seconds. The Rules help students see that technology changes the speed and scale of betrayal, but not its moral nature.
11. Dispute, Disagreement, and the Desire to Win
Rule #86 says, “In disputes, be not so desirous to overcome as not to give liberty to each one to deliver his opinion” p. 15. Rule #89 adds that one’s carriage should be grave, settled, and attentive, and that one should not contradict others “at every turn” p. 15.
These are excellent rules for civic education. A free people must be able to disagree. But disagreement becomes destructive when the desire to win overwhelms the desire to understand. Rule #86 does not condemn argument. It disciplines argument, shapes how it is conducted. It teaches that one should not seek victory in a way that denies others the liberty to speak.
This rule can be connected to classroom debates, Socratic seminars, political argument, family disagreement, and social media exchanges. Students should ask: Am I trying to discover what is true, or merely to defeat another person?
12. Table Manners and the Training of Appetite
A long section of the document concerns eating and table conduct pp. 15–17. Students may find this section amusing: don’t talk with one’s mouth full, do not eat greedily, do not put too much in one’s mouth, do not blow on broth, do not clean teeth with the tablecloth, do not rinse one’s mouth in the presence of others, and so forth.
Teachers should not dismiss these rules as trivial. Eating is one of the basic human activities where appetite reveals itself. Table manners are a practical school of moderation. They teach a young person not to be ruled by hunger, greediness, impatience, or bodily impulse in the presence of others.
The broader point is that civilization begins in small restraints. A person who cannot govern small appetites may not govern larger ones well.
13. Reverence, Parents, Recreation, and Conscience
The final three rules appear on p. 18. Rule #108 instructs that when speaking of God or divine attributes, one should do so seriously and with reverence, and that one should honor and obey one’s natural parents. Rule #109 says, “Let your recreations be manful not sinful.” Rule #110 concludes: “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”
The final maxim is the interpretive key. The document ends not with clothing, hats, seating, posture, or table manners, but with conscience. This suggests that the whole enterprise of civility aims beyond outward appearance. The real subject is the soul.
Conscience should be kept alive. That means it can be dulled, ignored, corrupted, or silenced. Habits matter because they either strengthen or weaken the voice of conscience. A person who repeatedly lies, mocks, betrays, envies, indulges cruelty, or excuses cowardice becomes less able to hear the inner command to do what is right.
Teachers should emphasize that Rule #110 transforms the whole document. The Rules are not merely about fitting into polite society. They are about becoming the kind of person who can live honorably with others and answer inwardly to the demands of right and wrong.
Washington’s Later Life
Teachers should avoid simplistic claims, such as “Washington became great because he copied these rules.” Moral formation of a human soul is more complicated than that. But it is fair to say that the Rules are consistent with the virtues Washington later displayed.
Washington’s public life was marked by unusual restraint. He commanded an army but did not make himself a military dictator. He presided over the Constitutional Convention but spoke little. He became the first president but did not seek to hold power indefinitely. He understood the importance of public dignity, reputation, ceremony, and self-command.
The connection worth emphasizing is not mechanical causation but moral continuity. The boy who copied rules about restraint, promise-keeping, reputation, moderation, and conscience became a man whose success and happiness depended heavily upon those same moral excellences.
If we want students to understand liberty, citizenship, character, and self-government, we must give them more than slogans and textbook summaries. We must help them encounter great primary sources directly, carefully, and seriously.
And we should offer them models of moral excellence. In that regard, few are more fitting than the great American statesman George Washington.
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