Students on first-name basis with teachers as titles become old school - Sensationalist Headlines

We never stopped using last name really, but we were all pretty close to our teachers during my school time. Small school probably helped with that when there was just one class (20 people) in my year. School trips were always fun hanging out with teachers and drinking. :v:

When I used to teach elementary school students (not that long ago, really) my approach was to just leave it up to the students. Some were more comfortable saying "Teacher Lastname", some "Miss Firstname", others preferred to just call me by my first name. It was both easiest for everyone and it didn't encroach on anyone's personalities.

My teacher becomes irrationally angry when I accidentally call him "Sir", it's a strict rule that we must call him by his first name.

I find the best policy to call the person what they want. As someone who has considered being an educator, I don't know that I'd care, but I'm not about to object to whatever people call me, unless it's outright disrespectful. I have one coworker that tries to add as many letters without adding another syllable to my first name as possible, that's been a fun ride. I had one professor that hated being called by just his last name due to his time in the military, but also didn't like being called doctor as it made him uncomfortable. Likewise, there was another professor in the department with the same first name, but more traditional spelling. He preferred to be called "Eric, but spelled the correct way." :v:

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;53108745]I don't want a more "personal" relationship with my professors. I'm not in school to make friends, i'm in school to learn. I expect you to be a professional, and i'll do the same in return.[/QUOTE] Using a first name doesn't mean you're friends, professionalism isn't warranted by default. Also you're dead wrong, especially if people want to do graduate studies, research, even medical school, etc. building good relationships is crucial. And even if your goal is to just get into the private sector, alumni networks and people you meet who can vouch for you are incredibly helpful, especially if you're untested labor.

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;53108745]I don't want a more "personal" relationship with my professors. I'm not in school to make friends, i'm in school to learn. I expect you to be a professional, and i'll do the same in return.[/QUOTE] This is a really bad position to take. There's so much to lose by not trying to get to know and socialize with professors.

[QUOTE=Spetsnaz95;53108063]Seems strange to me that a teacher would ever have any sort of title. In Denmark, every teacher from primary school to university are usually referred to by first name.[/QUOTE] Sweden too. Probably applies to Norway and Finland as well.

[QUOTE=Viper123_SWE;53109216]Sweden too. Probably applies to Norway and Finland as well.[/QUOTE] Yep. Norway here. From pre-school to college - we've been expected to know the names of the teachers, and the teachers are likewise expected to know our names (I don't know how they do it) Living in small places, you usually know many of the teachers outside of school as well, so they're just ordinary people.

I'm from Germany and I literally don't know the first name of any teacher or professor I've ever had. It's always been last name basis here. Teachers always called us by our first names though. Professors also usually have little contact to students directly. Then again, we don't have that "recommendation" thing that american colleges seem to have? The only thing that has somewhat changed is that most (younger) professors don't expect you to use the formal "you" anymore, and you can use the informal "you" instead (we have two different versions of it, depending on who you talk to). Addressing a professor by first name is usually considered very impolite and emails are generally expected to be formal as well. (Again, somewhat depends on the age of the professor.) [EDITLINE]-[/EDITLINE] In school years 1 to 7 (iirc) we used to stand up and greet the teacher in chorus with "Good morning Mr./Mrs. XY" whenever they came into the classroom. I think that differs from state to state though and it might not be a thing anymore in general now.

I am a med-school drop out and it was required to address your superiors by their academic title, and the same story when I was doing my BMus. I'm taking a break from my Master's right now though and nobody cares about titles.

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;53108101]Heck half the teachers when I grew up had nicknames everybody used [editline]4th February 2018[/editline] (I'm swedish)[/QUOTE] Even in working life I refer to people by nickname or first name, even my boss. I don't think I've [I]ever[/I] referred to someone by title or last name. [editline]5th February 2018[/editline] (Also Swedish)

i couldn't tell you any of my professors' names tbh [editline]5th February 2018[/editline] i can remember every face i have ever seen but i am not good with names in any way. i blame the internet and avatars for this

[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;53109333]i couldn't tell you any of my professors' names tbh [editline]5th February 2018[/editline] i can remember every face i have ever seen but i am not good with names in any way. i blame the internet and avatars for this[/QUOTE] I don't remember names or faces, it took me 3 months to learn my flat mates names and even then I'd sometimes forgot

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;53108824]Using a first name doesn't mean you're friends, [B]professionalism[/B] isn't warranted by default.[/QUOTE] There's actually a really interesting discussion here that ties into where and when first names are used in, say, schools. I've been to a couple of courses from work on How to Work With Americans and How to Work With Indians because apparently Israeli mentality is different enough from most other nations that it can seriously affect communication. So, for example, Israelis are always on first name basis. For coworkers, bosses, school teachers, commanders when you're a soldier and so on. Hell, we even refer to our PM (as well as most other politicians) by his nickname Bibi. Apparently that can rub non-Israelis the wrong way in certain professional contexts. But the really interesting thing here is that different nations have completely and utterly different definition for "professional". Apparently if you ask an American to define what makes someone "professional" it will be stuff like diligent, good team player, good communication abilities, respectful to his superiors and so on. And way out on the other hand of the spectrum you have us who define "professional" as good at his work, thinks outside the box, does what he needs without needing to be explicitly instructed and so on. So around here it's okay to call your CEO or general by their first name, but you're considered unprofessional if your boss needs to explicitly tell you what you need to do or if you don't loudly and publicly correct them when they're wrong. I guess my point is that we're a nation of loud assholes.

I teach and to be quite honest I'm glad we operate here on a second name/sir/miss basis.

It's always varied a bit as to how I've had to address my teachers/professors. There's one professor who insists everyone calls him Mike and acts very friendly, but there is (or at least was) another professor here who had a PhD. and was hell bent on making sure everyone knew it by demanding they always refer to him by his title. [QUOTE=ScumBunny;53109352]But the really interesting thing here is that different nations have completely and utterly different definition for "professional". Apparently if you ask an American to define what makes someone "professional" it will be stuff like diligent, good team player, good communication abilities, respectful to his superiors and so on. And way out on the other hand of the spectrum you have us who define "professional" as good at his work, thinks outside the box, does what he needs without needing to be explicitly instructed and so on. So around here it's okay to call your CEO or general by their first name, but you're considered unprofessional if your boss needs to explicitly tell you what you need to do or if you don't loudly and publicly correct them when they're wrong. I guess my point is that we're a nation of loud assholes.[/QUOTE] It would be considered pretty unprofessional in the US to loudly and publicly correct people and self motivation is generally a desired trait, though it can vary depending on the job or workplace as to how much leeway you have to do what you want.

i think this is totally relevant because to have this gap between students and teachers narrowed by just how you refer to your teacher, really does a lot. people think teachers are insignificant but they can be an influential figure growing up and sometimes they are the only ones you can approach when you have problems.

When I did my master's degree here in Sweden, my teachers sometimes got a bit uncomfortable when the international students addressed them by their titles or their last names. :v:

[QUOTE=ScumBunny;53109352]There's actually a really interesting discussion here that ties into where and when first names are used in, say, schools. I've been to a couple of courses from work on How to Work With Americans and How to Work With Indians because apparently Israeli mentality is different enough from most other nations that it can seriously affect communication. So, for example, Israelis are always on first name basis. For coworkers, bosses, school teachers, commanders when you're a soldier and so on. Hell, we even refer to our PM (as well as most other politicians) by his nickname Bibi. Apparently that can rub non-Israelis the wrong way in certain professional contexts. But the really interesting thing here is that different nations have completely and utterly different definition for "professional". Apparently if you ask an American to define what makes someone "professional" it will be stuff like diligent, good team player, good communication abilities, respectful to his superiors and so on. And way out on the other hand of the spectrum you have us who define "professional" as good at his work, thinks outside the box, does what he needs without needing to be explicitly instructed and so on. So around here it's okay to call your CEO or general by their first name, but you're considered unprofessional if your boss needs to explicitly tell you what you need to do or if you don't loudly and publicly correct them when they're wrong. I guess my point is that we're a nation of loud assholes.[/QUOTE] On the other hand you have peculiarities like this video: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogMvkT6WJXM[/url] (I'm not embedding it because it's not entirely thread-relevant so I don't want it to occupy lots of space) An Israeli demonstrator giving Ian a run down on the X95, as is his job, who seemed perfectly polite and professional to me - but some of the Americans in the comments think he's an asshole for some reason! Go figure. I often hear from tourists that they either love the social dynamics in Israel or hate them. Some can't swallow it. I was surprised to see this article at all, I didn't know anyone still called their teachers "sir" anywhere in the western world. That sort of professional distancing did not exist in my school years or anywhere else.

[QUOTE=BF;53108056]Read more at [URL]http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-01/students-on-first-name-basis-with-teachers-titles-become-old/9379138[/URL] Back in senior school we used to call teachers by their first name, even nicknames on occasion. At university we likewise call course coordinators, lecturers, tutors and workshop leaders by their first name. Even if they were Doctors or Professors.[/QUOTE] i've never called my teachers by their last name, in fact I don't know the last name of many of them

My middle school and high school were both like this and while a good chunk of it seemed to be the teachers actually giving a shit about their students, it did seem to help students with being more willing to approach teachers about things. Though it did have the side effect with rare groups of students where they'd take it too far and just not show any respect for the teachers at all. (Such as the group of asshats who got on the Jewish science teacher's computer when he was out of the room and put a bunch of Nazi shit on it.) That was less common though than the students being respectful of the teachers but more willing to approach them with anything ranging from questions regarding schoolwork they might not have felt confident asking to trying to address problems.

In high school we called our teacher “Coogly Woogly” sometimes. He was also the best teacher I’ve ever had and I still have him as a friend considering how incredibly kind and helpful he was.

[QUOTE=AK'z;53109418]i think this is totally relevant because to have this gap between students and teachers narrowed by just how you refer to your teacher, really does a lot. people think teachers are insignificant but they can be an influential figure growing up and sometimes they are the only ones you can approach when you have problems.[/QUOTE] Where I'm from, Teachers are regarded as your out-of-home parents and a lot of teachers in my area at least actually took that role and regarded their students as their own children. Personally, I find it a bit annoying but its interesting how a lot of people around me have very fond relationships with their teachers because of it.

Last semester in the program I was in everyone was on a first name basis and we really got to know the professors as people. I much prefer that to having a heiarchical learning system. [editline]5th February 2018[/editline] As a professor of mine put it this semester, we’re all in this learning environment together, there’s no need to let titles and formality get in the way of that.

Maybe it's a southern US thing, but I've never had a teacher who was referred to by anything other than title + last name, to the point where I don't even know many of my former teacher's first names.

Back when I was in college, I called one of my professors by her first name once on a email exchange during one evening. She was Canadian so you can imagine my confusion when I got an extremely unfriendly berating.

[QUOTE=laserpanda;53110099]Maybe it's a southern US thing, but I've never had a teacher who was referred to by anything other than title + last name, to the point where I don't even know many of my former teacher's first names.[/QUOTE] It's typically the norm all across the US to my knowledge. Schools like the ones I mentioned in my first post are the exception rather than the norm.

[QUOTE=Mabus;53109353]I teach and to be quite honest I'm glad we operate here on a second name/sir/miss basis.[/QUOTE] Why???

[QUOTE=elitehakor;53108061]at my high school there were a few teachers that we would just call them by their last name without mr/ms, but that was because they were cool[/QUOTE] I had this CAD/Engineering teacher in highschool that had the first name Richard and we used to call him Dick all the time :v: "Hey dick could you come over here?"

Been like this since at least 95 in Denmark. English speaking world confirmed entering the 21st century presently.