Experiment Gone Awry

A student I tutor is currently required to read “The Wave,” which is a book about a social experiment inflicted on high school students with a frightening and unexpected outcome.  I read it yesterday, and it reminded me of an “experiment” I was part of my first year in nursing school.

In 1962 when I began nursing school, our class learned that we were to be part of a program which had not been tried previously.  In addition to our normal classes, we were required one evening a week for several weeks to attend a class in “Gracious Living” taught by the staff of a local charm school. 

From the very first class, it was clear that a large percentage of us were of a different philosophical bent than the instructors for this class.  Because of the affiliation between our nursing school and a college with a reputation for being academically excellent and socially conservative, the school attracted young women who were bright and ……hmm….not frivolous and empty-headed.  Physical appearance and impressive manners were not paramount for most of us.  True, many of the girls were absolutely beautiful.  Some actually had been Miss Something-Or-Other in their home towns.  In the insecure fashion I operated under at that point in my life, I felt like I had been plopped down in the middle of a beauty pageant and didn’t measure up.  As to manners, no one was boorish in their conduct to begin with. 

We were an agreeable lot, so initially we all participated as expected of us.  We made it through the classes in etiquette and manners, exercises to enhance our figures, correct posture, and I-don’t-remember-what-else.   Then came the night we were to learn about correct application of make-up.  This took the form of the charm school ladies doing the make-up for one of our classmates. 

The girl they picked as their model was a truly pretty girl.  She had lovely features and wore make-up in a very tasteful fashion which enhanced her appearance without being obvious.  As they applied the various products to her face, she was seated so that we could not see clearly what was happening.  Finally, they had her turn toward us and one of them said, “Doesn’t she look lovely?”

A brief silence was followed by a chorus of voices, simultaneously saying things like:

“No!  She looks awful.”

“You have made her look like a hooker.”

“Oh…that’s terrible”

“You’ve ruined her!”

I suppose the administration of the school may have been embarrassed by this mutiny, but to my knowledge, they never tried to inflict this course on another group of students.

And sweet Mary Ann went back to wearing her normal make-up.