Twenty-one gentlemen dressed in suits and ties gather around the table for home-cooked steak on china plates with napkins neatly placed in their laps. No man is slumped in his chair, and no man is confused about which fork to use to eat dinner. This is a new breed of male teenagers.
These 21 men call themselves the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and they believe chivalry is not yet dead. Josh Waite and Connor Jacobs, seniors and group co-founders, came up with the idea based upon Kirkwood’s Empowering Women Club.
“Boys today, men tomorrow, gentlemen always,” the League’s motto, was created by Waite and Jacobs.
According to the co-founders, they have three bibles, or creeds: How to be a Gentleman, As a Gentlemen Would Say and From Clueless to Class Act. These books are tools used to help the men reach their full gentlemanly potential. At each meeting, three men are given a chapter to read from one of the books. The next meeting they are required to talk to the group about the chapter’s subject.
“We had high hopes, and we still have high hopes. We 
wanted to make sure that the mindset wasn’t that this is just some hang out,” Waite said. “Because if we wanted to just hang out, we would hang out.”
The league expects to last for a long time because each man is an expert in some aspect of gentlemanly behavior. Most of the meetings are located in David Olderman’s room.
“Esquires in training,” is how Olderman, history teacher and group sponsor, described the League.
Jack Stanley, senior, is the designated historian for the league. Stanley records the debates and intellectual conversations discussed.
“Some of it is obviously fictional because we just started the club,” Waite said. “[But] we would like to have a history to present at each meeting.”
These gentlemen put chivalrous words into chivalrous actions. They have decided to start the League of Extraordinary Gentleman Penny Drive for Ronald McDonald House and are currently in the process of choosing other organizations to help support.
“Not only do we want to raise money, but also use our physically able bodies, our gentlemanly bodies and our manly bodies, to help carry things for downtown soup kitchens to serve some food,” Waite said.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen works hard and plays harder. This year, the boys have decided to join the wiffle ball, kickball and the dodge ball team at the Des Peres Lodge.
“We will dominate all three leagues,” Waite said. “Being gentlemen, we will shake hands and be good sports, but we will destroy you.”
Weaving through the hallways, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen address each other as Mister, open doors for people and attempt to be leaders within KHS. To the League, bringing chivalry back is a mission they hope to accomplish.
“Chivalrous would be the best word because we’re not completely self-less; you have to think of yourself sometimes,” Matt Berry, junior, member, said. “But, you have to think of other people, too. You have to treat the ladies well. You can’t disrespect on the ladies.”
