Did you go to a school where students used first names for all or some teachers instead?
For the year following highschool graduation, I lived in Norway and was amazed to hear first names being used, in class, out loud, for teachers. At the time (age 17/18) I remarked at how different it made a class environment feel--more personable, and respectful in that by calling a teacher by their first name it made them seem more human...like they could be your neighbour...someone you could know outside of school. It also made me, as a young person, feel more grown up to be using the teacher's first name. I felt more responsible, somehow.
It also made me notice that the Norwegian teachers in that school never had to deal with correcting out-of-line/angry students who would try to take cheap shots at the teacher by not using Mr./Mrs/Ms.
I guess my own uneasy feeling about being called my my title may have to do with the fact that as a student in highschool I noticed that some kids just needed to rebel against authority. The Title just seemed like an easy target. Also, in our English-speaking culture, to call someone by their Mr?Mrs/Ms. title is to show respect. Should we demand respect as teachers? Isn't respect something that should be earned? Don't we respect someone more when they don't put themselves on a pedastal first?
What is in a title...??
I personally have mixed feelings on the issue.
There was only one teacher in my high school who insisted that students called him by his first name. However, a lot of our teachers ended up being called by their last name, without the Mr. in front of it. It was definitely just the male teachers that it happened with and I'm not sure exactly what that was about, but it was almost like their last name became their first name, Willers, MacIsaac, Balsillie, and Kush (Kushniryk). Oddly enough these were all science/math teachers. As for myself I'm with you Sara in that I'm not sure where I stand on the issue exactly. Being so young still I think it'd seem weird to be called Ms./Mlle. MacKenzie all the time, but at the same time I don't know if I want my students calling me Rebecca either.
ReplyDeleteI am also a bit unsure on this topic. I would prefer to be called Cameron, as that is the name I identify with. I also want to have a less formal relationship with my students. At the same time, I can see that going with a Mr/Ms/Mrs is a form of respect. I don't want to be the young teacher who rocks the boat. At my school only 1 teacher went by his first name, some of the time, and he was not well respected. Most of the time if students called teachers by their first names it was to show a lack of respect.
ReplyDeleteAs young and new teachers in a school would we be rocking the boat if we went by our first names? How common is this in schools?
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ReplyDeleteDale said...
ReplyDeleteHaha, all summer thinking about how great its going to be to be called 'Mr. Plotzki' from now on!
..I guess thats pretty much all i need to say.
I associate calling someone "Mr., Ms." to an actual adult...ie - MY old high school teachers, or someone with with gray hair!! ha. I think that shows how much more aware you are of age when you're young too, and the line it puts between people socially. I think that as teachers it is important to address be addressed professionally....but probably when I start out and especially when I am a student teacher, I don't feel the need for so much immediate formality. In teaching positions previously I have been called "Ms Alysson", and I don't know how that would translate in this culture, but to me it is a bit more of a mix of the formal with the informal/approachable. So...what's in a name anyway?!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in school I had dozens of teachers who went without a title, and my PE teacher, Mr. McLaughlin, just went by ‘Mr. Pete.’ I always figured I’d go that route, either going as Moss, or even Mr. Moss, purely because the name Scheurkogel is hard to pronounce and harder to spell correctly.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I’ve always found the conventions of women’s titles extremely irritating. Even if you know the difference between Mrs and Ms, and know how to illustrate that difference through pronunciation, you still have the issue of whether you follow the UK convention of excluding a period after the abbreviation or the American standard of including one. And if you’re teaching in a bilingual or French school, things just get worse.
I feel that the whole convention of titles is getting a bit archaic in our current society, and I don’t think you should ever impose something on a student when you can’t explain to them why you’re doing it.
http://www.emilypost.com/everyday/forms_of_address.htm
ReplyDeleteSee? Totally unnecessary.
Thank you Emily Post for illustrating the absurdity of etiquette.
My feelings are a bit mixed as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat about giving students a choice? I remember in high school, one teacher said we could call him either by his first or last name, but the whole class still called him by formal last name. I think we had it engrained in our heads that it was disrespectful to address a teacher by their first name so no one wanted to make the change and stand out. But this eliminated the chance of a student disrespecting the teacher by addressing him by his first name because he said it was okay.
I think that this is the way I would go. Give students the choice to call me by Ms Baerg, Ms Kylie, or just Kylie, depending on what they were comfortable with and preferred. I think students would appreciate the choice.
I agree with Moss, I think this whole formal addressing of teachers is getting old. For example, we can look at how we addressed adults by first name basis when we were children. When my parents were children, they addressed all adults formally, but that has definitely phased out. I can see the same thing happening with addressing teachers in school.
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ReplyDeleteIn my experience the teachers that I had the best relationship with always had a nickname that played with their last name. For example, Reisig = Zig, Neufeld = Neufs, Paananen = Pawn. That being said those were all male teachers. I figure that I will start off with the official and as I get to know my classes we will work out a system of addressing each other. I don't think I would ever correct a student for not using a title before my last name though.
ReplyDelete