POCATELLO — Leave it to a clown to find a way to make learning table manners fun for children.

    Cecelia Rupp, better known in town as Polly Ester Clown, teaches Community Education classes, offered through School District 25 on various evenings at Hawthorne Middle School.

    Though some might assume a class in table manners is about as appealing to children as brussels sprouts, Rupp says her guests always have a terrific time learning to sit down properly, set the table and pass food like ladies and gentlemen.

    “We’ve even had a couple of adults take the class,” says Rupp, who shows up to children’s birthday parties and business picnics as Poly Ester but doesn’t teach classes in her persona. “They took it with their kids and they all learned.”

    Rupp has also taught Community Education classes in science magic, drama and balloon tying.

    The table manners class meets on a weekly basis for six weeks. Wednesday night, as part of the final session of the most recent class, students practiced setting tables. Those interested in registering for the next available class, which begins April 1, should call 232-6082. The cost of the class is $30.

    Rupp uses the children’s book she authored, “How to be a #1 Kid at Table Manners,” as a textbook of sorts for the manners class, which she started teaching about two years ago.

    “My thing is if you can eat at home even once a week at the table, tremendous communication can happen. That’s part of my class, to get people around the dinner table again,” Rupp says. “It teaches them a variety of things — communication, respect, compassion. Compassion because when you sit down and eat, you’re grateful for the food in front of you.

    “The whole reason for manners is to make the other person feel comfortable. That’s the whole essence of it. It’s not a snobbery thing.”

    Rupp has learned much about manners through research and reading, but she got her best training by watching her mother, who frequently served as a hostess at some of New York’s most elegant dinner parties and social gatherings.

    Her advice for anyone looking to make a good impression at the dinner table?

    “Passing to the right shows that you are polite,” Rupp says when explaining the proper technique for passing food.

    She also describes the proper way to sit at the dinner table: The back of your legs should touch the seat before you sit. Grab the chair sides before sitting, then gently scoot the chair forward by holding onto the seat and lifting at the same time. To determine the proper distance from the table, you should be able to place your forearms on the table rim. Don’t forget to unfold the napkin in your lap.

    “When they first come in, some kids are very unsure of themselves. By the time they leave, they feel they can sit down at a nice dinner with important people,” Rupp says. “As you get older, this can be a make-or-break deal if you go out to dinner with a client. This is not something that should be trivialized. This is important stuff. It’s lacking, and we need to resuscitate it.