Not many women wear lace gloves to social events anymore.

But Rebecca Malenkos does. As an etiquette and cotillion teacher, it's part of her formal attire.

"I am an English teacher at Carmel High School during the day, and then I run cotillion classes in the evening. It's more fun to teach students how to dance than it is to teach them grammar," she said on a recent Sunday after teaching a class on table manners.

Malenkos, who teaches cotillion classes at Woodland Country Club in Carmel, was herself a manners student. She took junior high cotillion classes in Indianapolis, then progressed to student assistant for her teacher, Mrs. Kenneth Kinnear.

At 19, she taught ballroom dancing at Wake Forest and Salem Women's Colleges in North Carolina. She started teaching cotillion classes in Abilene, Texas, in 1986, and continued them when she moved back to Indianapolis in 1988. This year, 320 students are enrolled in her classes.

Cotillion is a French word that means private party, explained Malenkos, who believes etiquette helps teens feel more comfortable with their peers and others.

"What I like to teach about etiquette is that it is inclusive, that people who are really well-mannered make everybody feel comfortable and everybody feel welcome," she said.

There are no prerequisites for Malenkos' classes.

Parents serve as chaperones. The classes always simulate a party, where parents form a receiving line, and students practice shaking hands, greeting and thanking their hosts or hostesses, and serving refreshments.

"Of course, that's supposed to all transfer into the private parties, when you're invited to parties as a young adult," she said.

Malenkos has seen her classes grow through the years, as kids' appearances have changed from hair that was long and unkempt and huge baggy clothing to a more conservative dress.

"Now I think we are more into elegance, and we are more interested in doing things correctly," she said.

"Probably the most important part of etiquette is being at ease with yourself in a social situation," she said.

"I think there will always be a need to put students together in their own age group so that they learn how to talk to each other, and how to act with each other, and how to interact."

"The beauty of teaching is that you transfer the learning, the knowledge to someone else and then someone else picks it up."

EDITED BY: Colleen Merkel, 14.

REPORTERS: Andrea Phillips, 11, and Evan Phillips, 12.

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