Do they have finishing schools anymore?
Daniel Martin 
I would guess not, considering the steep decline in ladies’ dress and manners since the late 1970s.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | February 3, 2019 3:07 AM |
There are a couple. The really grand ones folded. This one makes false claims about its historical importance. More than a decade ago, enterprising Chinese attended Swiss finishing schools and copied their entire curriculum etc etc then replicated it in China. So there are apparently Swiss style finishing schools in China that have nothing to do with Switzerland.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 1, 2019 6:02 PM |
OP, you realize only a tiny percentage of rich families sent their girls to finishing schools right?
Since 90% of violence is caused by men, perhaps you should be more concerned with men's morals
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 1, 2019 6:10 PM |
Everyone is writing about this one but its a minor remainder of past glories.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 1, 2019 6:11 PM |
R2 sounds like an angry lesbian. I don’t know how it is for the poor and ethnic, dear, but I imagine they do their own thing.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 1, 2019 6:12 PM |
They’d be an awesome idea for MTF, wouldn’t they? No, I’m not being a jackass.
Transitioning is hard. Learning to be feminine and female is damned hard. Finishing schools would be brilliant for helping MTF more smoothly transition in all respects. You’ve hit on a great idea.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 1, 2019 6:29 PM |
r2 is correct. All this wondering about some silly system that deems to turn girls/women into suitable partners for rich men is pointless.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 1, 2019 6:39 PM |
Hey OP, how about getting the design queens to come up with women's clothes that are to your liking so you won't bore us into unconsciousness with your whining?
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 1, 2019 6:50 PM |
Ah yes, the elegant and fashionable 1970s.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 1, 2019 7:07 PM |
R4 sounds like a homophobic Republican
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 1, 2019 7:47 PM |
The only one I can think of is Southern Methodist University.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 1, 2019 7:57 PM |
R9, they had to keep up with the men, duh.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 1, 2019 7:58 PM |
OP-Men and women were dressing like SLOBS by the early 1970's.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 1, 2019 7:59 PM |
Late 1970s? Surely you mean late 1870s, darling OP!
It all began when those suffragette hussies stopped wearing corsets and later marcelled their hair. Why, I never!
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 1, 2019 8:08 PM |
R13. I totally forgot we dressed like kitchen wallpaper.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 1, 2019 8:09 PM |
Instead of finishing schools, women are attending college/grad school. A BA in Art History is the new finishing school. The Tech titans align themselves with well-educated women . Zuckerberg married a fellow Harvard graduate who went on to get a MD. When I was in medical school in the late 90's, no doctors were marrying nurses. They were marrying other doctors.
Most well educated straight men want to be with well educated women, not a dolt like Lady Diana, a product of s finishing school and a former nanny.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 1, 2019 8:17 PM |
R17. Certainly no television actresses.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 1, 2019 8:19 PM |
R18 . Harry is a bigger dolt than his mother, so that is no surprise. He would have never graduated uni without tutors doing his work.
Camilla's educational achievements prior to marriage included an O-level in kennel hygiene. You can't make this stuff up. I assume one would need an A level in kennel hygiene to work with the Queen's corgis.
"After leaving Queen’s Gate school with a single O-level in kennel hygiene, she went on to become the most sought-after debutante of her generation. "
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 1, 2019 8:24 PM |
R17 Fuckerberg is a Harvard dropout so did not marry a "fellow Harvard graduate".
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 1, 2019 8:26 PM |
Zuck babbles along incomprehensibly in Mandarin to the bemusement of his Chinese audiences. They permit wholesale theft of their user’s private information for profit. There’s nothing laudable about Zuck and his wife. They’re just modern day robber barons who should be regulated as another other communications industry platform is. He’s totally tone deaf about the abuse of facebook. Now he’s announced he plans on merging Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger - all platforms that serve distinct and separate audiences. Why? Who knows. Instagram is for famewhores. Messenger is for Facebook, the choice for fat suburban moms. Whatsapp still has a core audience of privacy oriented users. Facebook’s lost it’s previous core user base with its perfidy and noxious trollbaiting.
Who he married hasn’t demonstrated any social awareness. Just businiess acumen. The portrayal of him as a total asshole in “Social Network” appears to be more accurate with time.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 1, 2019 8:33 PM |
Here you go, OP.
I don’t know the background of these people. Looks like a debutante ball. Not that I’ve ever seen one. Bet there was a lot of practice involved in this.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 1, 2019 9:28 PM |
In Slovenia, we have architect school for ladies.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 1, 2019 9:31 PM |
I graduated from UVA. It's not a charm school.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 1, 2019 9:33 PM |
Esthetician school has replaced finishing school.
And, as Bristol Palin noted on her graduation from an esthetician school.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 1, 2019 10:10 PM |
Ooops
As Bristol Palin noted #esthetics#prettymuchadermatologist#
See, now Bristol is pretty much an MD!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 1, 2019 10:12 PM |
The days of Jackie Kennedy are gone sadly.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 1, 2019 10:25 PM |
Jackie didn't go to a finishing school. Miss Porter's has always been an academic prep school.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 1, 2019 10:34 PM |
It could have served as a sort of finishing school, but it wasn't only that.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 1, 2019 10:35 PM |
Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri was always considered to be a finishing school. My ex-partner's sister went there and then proceeded to teach at a nursery school while she waited for a wealthy beau to sweep her off her feet. Lots of girls would bring their horses along with them. I imagine it has evolved somewhat with the times, though.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | February 1, 2019 10:44 PM |
R17, STOP! This is the Datalounge. The people here are stuck in 1955.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | February 2, 2019 1:02 AM |
R17, you are so correct. My daughter received her BFA and MFA and with a couple weeks of graduation she announced she was engaged to marry the following year. She had somehow snagged a smart tech guy who worships her. Smart tech guy is the son a prominent leader in his field, actually known as the "Father of xxxxxx"
Finishing school? Hmmpphh! I taught my daughter how to marry well!. THANK YOU GAY SENSIBILITIES!
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | February 2, 2019 2:28 AM |
Stephens was notorious as a "finish school". It also got girls whose mother's friends would slightly roll their eyes. I think they weren't exactly the nicest girls--whores looking for a sugar daddy.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | February 2, 2019 2:33 AM |
Yes, my niece is one of these “educated” women. She would have been better served by going to finishing school. She is utterly insufferable. I have no idea why her poor husband stays married to her.
Men like women who are demure and ladylike. At least they did in my day. I guess men today have become accustomed to amazons.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | February 2, 2019 2:36 AM |
A finishing school is a school for young people that focuses on teaching social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society.The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the education, with classes primarily on deportment and etiquette, with academic subjects secondary. It may consist of an intensive course, or a one-year programme. In the United States it is sometimes called a charm school.
Graeme Donald claims that the educational ladies' salons of the late 1800s led to the formal, finishing institutions evidenced in Switzerland around that time. At their peak, thousands of wealthy young women were sent to the dozens of finishing schools available. A primary goal was to teach students to acquire husbands.
The 1960s marked the decline of the finishing school. This can be attributed to the shifting conceptions of women's role in society, as well as succession issues within the typically family-run schools and sometimes commercial pressures driven by the high value of the properties the schools occupied. The 1990s saw a revival of the finishing school, although the business model has been radically altered.
(Astronauts go to "Charm School" to learn how to handle the press, fans, and contractors. MIT started a similar school a decade or two back to teach their young geniuses how to handle eating utensils and glassware while engaging in sociable discourse...)
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 35 | February 2, 2019 2:44 AM |
They should. Manners are atrocious. No one even understands RSVP anymore.
My nephew attends “cotillion” and is learning basic dance and is a snazzy dresser. Still out on whether he’s gay or not.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | February 2, 2019 2:47 AM |
I think there's only one finishing school left in Switzerland. Even the one Princess Diana went to has closed.
Finch College in Manhattan was a famous finishing school: its famous graduates include Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, Arlene Francis, Tricia Nixon, and (astonishingly) Grace Slick. It closed in the 70s.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | February 2, 2019 2:58 AM |
[quote] Men like women who are demure and ladylike. At least they did in my day.
But you have to remember, things have changed since then. For example, Coolidge is no longer president.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | February 2, 2019 3:00 AM |
"Most well educated straight men want to be with well educated women, not a dolt like Lady Diana"
R17, the "well-educated" people you refer to are actually middle class, or from middle-class origins (including techies with money). The upper middle class are the most well educated strata of society, they're the ones getting advanced degrees and marrying other people with advanced degrees, and who consider a degree in art history to be better than finishing school.
Finishing school was always for the hereditary upper class, the ones who didn't stress too much about education because they didn't need to. But I don't believe these people are leaving all the money to the sons and telling the daughters to get themselves a rich husband if they wanted to live in style, and the real purpose of finishing schools was to groom girls to get that 1% husband.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | February 2, 2019 7:18 AM |
R39, maybe the new market for finishing schools is in societies where there's money, but where girls still aren't expected to do anything but find a husband - like India or the Arab world.
But then, if you arrange marriages, you don't need to waste money on schooling the bride in social graces.
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | February 2, 2019 7:19 AM |
There was no O level in "Kennel Hygiene". O levels were for academic subjects like history and geography. Someone made that shit up. LOL
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | February 2, 2019 7:35 AM |
[quote] and the real purpose of finishing schools was to groom girls to get that 1% husband.
The 1% guys don't want these any more either. They want women with high achievements they can show off.
That's why finishing schools died off. Rich guys want Harvard and Stanford grads, not charm school grads.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | February 2, 2019 8:21 AM |
OP / R34, do you think that if your niece went to finishing school that she would not have turned her nose up at your delicious Chicken a la King?
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | February 2, 2019 8:31 AM |
"They want women with high achievements they can show off."
Not quite R42. They want women with high or higher SALARIES than they have.
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | February 2, 2019 4:34 PM |
Only the middle classes want high-salaried women, R44, not the hereditary rich whose daughters used to go to finishing schools. The genuine upper class don't need to combine two high salaries if they want to both raise children and enjoy themselves!
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | February 2, 2019 7:59 PM |
[quote]do you think that if your niece went to finishing school that she would not have turned her nose up at your delicious Chicken a la King?
Of course. She would’ve been exposed to this sort of food more often, or at least would’ve learned to not criticize the host.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | February 2, 2019 8:54 PM |
I'm an Upper Richmond Girls' School girl.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | February 2, 2019 11:41 PM |
No, but as a society we are in desperate need of them.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | February 3, 2019 12:43 AM |
Finishing school often was some sort of reform school for wayward debs. That's probably how Grace Slick wound up at Finch. My guess is that the prisy queens who complain about "manners" would be the first to make fun of those whose were less than perfect or people who went to charm school some place like Federal's, the low end Detroit department store that used to have one. They're probably the same old queens who wish we all wore suits everyday, but also would be the first to make fun of those poorly paid white collar workers from the days of dress codes who wound up at the sale rack in Macy's basement or, worse, some place like Robert Hall. A lot of sthis stuff was just about being a better snob and there are stillplenty of remnants around with cotillions, coming out parties, junior league events, Jck & Jill (if your Black), etc.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | February 3, 2019 3:07 AM |
