WITH reference to the commentary, "So well-educated yet so rude" (The New Paper, 22 Jan), please note that just because you are well educated does not mean you will have good etiquette.

Take something I saw on a bus: A young man reading a book, sitting with his legs up and his shoes on the seat, taking up two places.

In my whole life, I have not sat in such a position on a bus. My parents taught me from young about basic manners.

It is not the fault of this teenager that he is like this.

The blame should be on his parents who have failed to teach him to be gracious.

As today's working parents might be too busy to educate their children on such basic manners, they tend to push the responsibility to schools or even their maids.

This is wrong.

Schools can provide only a rough guide and it will be even worse to leave it to the maids because they may not understand our social culture.

Some people may see this as a minor issue. However, if you look deeper, you will see that our next generation lacks basic manners and it will be an uphill task to achieve a gracious society.

I totally agree with the writer when she said, "Goodness gracious me, what have we become?"