But what about the teacher at one of these first name schools who wants to be called Mr X or Miss Y?Don't they have say?Can't they decide what they want the children to call them?It is bulling if the principal's policy is to insist on first names. "Accept this or go somewhere else."
Yes you can call them buy their first names. You can also throw chairs at them, swear at them and generally abuse them.Sorry to sound so old but in the "old days" children called the teachers Sir and Mame like they still do in private schools and they didn't and don't have the out of control behaviour that is currently in our state schools.We already have teacher panic buttons in schools and this can only get worse with the respect for teachers being eroded surely?
Star' please refer to my last comments and exkiwi's comments..
I went to a primary school where all the teachers were called by their first names, and i still learnt about respect and authority- at first of course i thought it was perfectly normal, then as i got older i noticed friends from other schools called their teachers "miss" or "sir", and i thought about it a bit more. i think it made me feel more on equal terms with a teacher- not that i could run the school or anything, just that they weren't incredibly special when it came to expressing an opinion... they weren't superior as such. this doesn't mean they didn't get respect from their students. we still understood that they were our teachers, our elders, they ran the show and they were ultimately responsible for us during school. what's so wrong with kids learning from a young age that everyone is equal?
And we wonder why kids have no respect for adults...another example of adults wanting to be 'friends' with kids rather than teaching them boundaries and how to be responsible, polite adults!!
Called the teachers, 'teacher paul or 'teacher susan is more appropriate than just the teachers first name..We must keep the teachers identity as 'teacher..
As Kathy has put it, another PC milestone. There is no respect now and this will make it even worse. What happens if these children decide later in life to go into the forces and their Sergent pulls them up? Are they going to say 'Wassup Jimbo?' You can see what is going to happen huh?
This is yet another PC milestone!
I don't think using first names is such a bad thing, but it should still be used in line with a certain respect. Students should still be expected to use the titles sir and miss as appropriate out of simple respect for adults. It's just polite to say thank you sir/miss/ma'am at the shop or elsewhere, sadly something you rarely hear these days.
Why not call the teachers by their nicknames. We had a teacher whose nickname would have been 'Dunny'.