Teaching formal manners as part of pledging/new membership?

[naraht]

I went to a local (D.C. & MD) conference of Alpha Phi Omega this past weekend and my wife, my son and I sat at a table of 9 at the closing banquet. The other 6 places at the table were 5 brothers and a pledge from one of our chapters. At one point in the dinner, I noticed that one of the brothers sitting next to the pledge was instructing him on formal manners such as cutting multiple pieces off of the meat entree and then putting down his knife and eating each of the multiple pieces as well as where to place the knife and fork on the plate when he was done. Now this was a catered event in auditorium in the Student Union, so the waiting/catering staff was nowhere *near* at the level of understanding of the formal manners that were being taught to the pledge...

I tend to associate this with Greek Life in the 1950s and 1960s, is this still done significantly today? (note this was a chapter at an HBCU, so if that is being done routinely today in the NPHC, that might be the influence). I pledged at a chapter at a HWI and our pledging process didn't even come close to dealing with that.