The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.

Astaire’s remark frames manners as a learned social practice that depends heavily on example rather than instruction. The “hardest job” is not memorizing rules of etiquette but trying to internalize courtesy, restraint, and respect in an environment where adults and public figures may not model them. The line also implies a critique of modern culture’s erosion of civility: children are asked to behave well while surrounded by rudeness, hypocrisy, or inconsistency. Its enduring appeal comes from its concise moral logic—virtue is contagious, but so is vice—and from the authority of a performer associated with elegance and polish, which underscores the contrast between ideal conduct and everyday behavior.