Is chivalry dead? Not at one Arizona school. According to ABC News, Latin teacher Cord Ivanyi has started teaching impromptu etiquette lessons to his students. Ivanyi said he got the idea after watching a group of boys push through a line of girls who were waiting to get food at a class party. He was bothered by the lack of respect on both the boys’ and the girls’ part. So Ivanyi made an announcement at the beginning of the year -- all of the boys in class would be expected to act like gentlemen around the girls. For example, in Ivanyi’s class, the door is always held for the girls, and the boys aren’t allowed to sit at their desks unless all the girls have been seated first. If a girl stands in the middle of class, the boys have to stand up to show respect. The girls, for the most part, are only required to say, ‘Thank you.’

So what do parents think of Ivanyi’s social experiment? One mother in the article admitted that she didn’t know what to think of the policy at first because she grew up in the ‘70s with women’s rights and women’s lib. She liked the fact that the boys were being polite and showing respect. Erin Matson, the acting president of the National Organization for Women, says she wonders if singling out boys for good manners is the way to go, even though she finds the idea adorable. She said it’s teaching kids to treat girls differently, and she says good etiquette should be practiced for both genders. Etiquette expert Cindy Post Senning says she admires the thought behind Ivanyi’s plan, but thought that his rules might be outdated.