Civility may not be on the top of many college students list of “things to learn at school,” but because of Dr. P.M. Forni students may be penciling it in. Forni has been chosen to speak at this year’s convocation Oct. 22, and is planning on delivering a one-two-punch to bad manners.
Forni is an award-winning professor of Italian literature, teaching at John Hopkins University for the past 22 years. He was born and raised in Italy, where he graduated from the University of Pavia in 1974. He received his Ph.D in Italian literature at UCLA in 1981.
In 1997, Dr. Forni co-founded the John Hopkins Civility Project, or The Civility Initiative at John Hopkins, a program aimed at showing the importance of civility in everyday life. The program works at proving the significance of civility, politeness and manners in society.
“Essentially what we have created is an initiative that is both aimed at studying forms of social interactions such as politeness and good manners, but we are also an advocacy group because we believe that civility and politeness are essential in society because we are better off when we treat others in a civil way.”
“I was teaching and it came to me that even though the students might understand Dante, if they left and were rude to an elderly woman I would feel that I had not done my job,” Forni said.
His book, Choosing Civility, has been used in many colleges for the “freshman experience.” The freshman class is given the book in the beginning of the summer and when they start school they are enrolled in a course that discusses the importance of manners, politeness and civility.
The project has not only been sweeping college campuses, but according to Forni, cities have been taking a step towards civility.
“Communities like Cleveland Heights, Ohio have taken my book ‘Choosing Civility’ and have used it as a stepping stone for mobilizing members of society and rallying them around the notion of civility. Religious communities, chambers of commerce, local libraries, the police department and the school district have been brought together to showcase the importance of civil behavior in society,” Forni said.
It is a movement, there are several initiatives that have spread throughout the country. Many communities and universities have created civility based initiatives of their own. American Universtiy in Washington DC is one of the universities that has done that and Texas A&M University-Commerce could be next.
“We have done team projects with other universities, but we are very open to consider working with other universities,” Forni said.