Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Just Wondering...

After having kids in school for the last ten years I still can't seem to figure out what to call my kids' teachers.   Some teachers have never once uttered my first name and still sign every note "Mr. Bloggosaurus" even after closely working with them for 3 whole years . Other teachers seem to really prefer the first name basis from day one.  And then there are the teachers who really mess with my sleep deprived brain by switching back and forth between "Mrs. G" and "Lara" on a day-to-day basis.

So now I'm wondering, how do you refer to your child's teachers?

Mrs. Smith?   Or Karen?

Does it matter how old they are in what you call them?  Or what gender?  Or do you just wait to see how they sign their emails?    Am I the only one confused by such a simple concept?


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11 comments:

Deanne said...

This is my first year dealing with teachers, but Sophie's KG teacher told me to call her by her first name when I kept referring to her as Miss So-and-so.

I can totally see where the indecision on what to call them comes from though. You're more experienced than I am, so I'll be interested to see what others post on this subject.

Denise said...

I always call the teacher Mrs. So and So, Mr. So and So, Ms. So and So.

And when I write to them I sign my full name...so they know my first name and who I belong to.

I think unless you are invited to call them by their first name, it's always appropriate to call them Mrs. So and So.

It just seems respectful.

K said...

Andrew's preschool teachers are only called by their first names. In fact, I don't even know their last names.

Andie said...

I got with Mr. /Mrs. as a rule. When I'd volunteer in Abby's kindergarten her teacher would always sign her notes to me "Shari" so I went with that because I really liked her and it seemed natural. Other teachers I would never be comfortable calling by their first names, even if several of my kids had the same teacher.

alexandra said...

Yeah, I'm on the "Mr./Mrs." bandwagon. And frankly, if they tell you to call them by their first name, you can just claim information overload ("You see, I've got five kids in school and umpteen teachers to keep track of. . .") and keep doing the Mr./Mrs. thing anyway.

Better yet, just have as little contact with them as possible. It'll free up a lot of time!

C and Co. said...

I say just call them "dude" no matter what.

I'm with you! It's a total conundrum. (Is that even spelled right??)

Pete said...

I normally say: "We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone."

Otherwise, I call the male teachers "Mr." and the female teacher "Mrs." I've found that as long as you don't mess that up you are doing well.

K said...

I wish Pete would leave more comments. He always makes me laugh.

Honey Mommy said...

Wow. I never thought about it because I don't have kids in school yet!

I would probably just call them Mrs. Smith out of habit... unless I know them personally.

Annette said...

HA!! I have the same question! A couple teachers I call by their first name and a couple others by their last name, and one or two by names that shouldn't be uttered! Just depends on how well I know them.

Clarinda said...

I don't have any kids, but I am the YW president in my ward. It's important to me to teach the youth respect, so I ask them to call me by Sister, and I try to refer to my counselors by Sister So-and-So when I'm in front of the youth. HOWEVER, when the youth are not around, I use first names.

So...not that my opinion matters much, but if children are around, I'd definitely call teachers Mr/Mrs. If no children are present, then it would depend on how well I knew the teacher.

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