Calling all teachers!

??? Whatever! Not wasting any more of my time on you - away and get a life and some help for your issues.

what even if they are?

bit hacked off that my message is deleted when someone sees fit to go round slagging people and children's names off in a particularly inflammatory way and all I did was ask if they were a genuine poster and if they needed help

Spot on.

All I care about is that my child (& those I teach) are well mannered, and do their best. Names etc are an irrelevance once you get to meet the kids.

Just as an anecdote I had a class with 3 Connors, 3 Georges, 3 Bradleys, 2 Hannahs & 3 Emilys a few years ago. That was a nightmare, once I'd learned which one was which, calling 'Bradley' to have 3 say "yes, miss?!" meant they ended up having to be referred to as Brad H etc. My brain was pickled the first few weeks I taught them!

tbf, i think sometimes the reaction can come from a bit of insecurity. I couldn't care less what people think about my kids names, how I look etc etc.

I know my children are beautiful (to me) and well behaved and their names have nothing to do with anything. I am actually trying to teach my son that there is more to life than getting a perfect report at the moment. He is devastated because he got only 20 6s out of a possible 21 and only got a 5 instead. He needs to learn to give himself a break. I'd be actually proud if he got told off in class for chatting :) I'd love him just the same and he knows it. That's what is important, whether some teacher thinks he has a common/naughty/chavvy name or not is entirely irrelevant to me and him.

actually dolly, did you know the sky isn't actually blue? it's something to do with reflected light or something, my small child explained it to me once but it didn't sink in :o

my thoughts exactly Dolly.

I once had a class with four Connors in it. They were quite sweet actually. I teach a couple of interesting children with interesting names, but they're pretty unique so I'm not going to put them on the internet. Being a teacher does make choosing names for your own children challenging.

I don't think teaches are any more prejudiced about names than rest of us.

My particular bugbear that unfortunately many teachers DO have a habit of, is judging children by their siblings

I was lucky in that I had a common surname and my nearest brother had left High school the year I started.

My two are only 13 months amd one school year apart. I feel a bit for my younger son as he does get compared to his brother a lot, and also called his name by mistake frequently. On his first day in Art the teacher exclaimed "oh you are are X's brother, are you as good at art as him?" to which he had to honestly reply "no" that made him feel great in front of his new classmates :(

He also has a teacher who calls him the "roundabout boy" as he has the same name as a local roundabout - we didn't live here when he was named. He does however prefer that to being caled by his brothers name (who incidentally is also called after a different local roundabout!)

I tend to find meeting the parents tells me much of what I need to know about their offspring.

My particular bugbear that unfortunately many teachers DO have a habit of, is judging children by their siblings. It drives me crazy.

Just because X's big brother was an oik/super clever/sporty etc doesn't mean their siblings will be the same. I suffered for it as a child "oh you're a....(surname) so you'll be sporty". Well no, actually. I'm me. Not my brother/sister/cousins.

And by the way Sandfrog, your post is the nastiest one I've seen on here.

I'm amused at some of the moral outrage on this thread. And why are people trying to make out it's a thread about 'chavvy' names? A lot of the names that have been used are far from 'chavvy' and there is no impression being given that teachers associate a certain 'type' of name with naughty children.
Seriously, calm down. I don't know why some people even come onto baby names threads, they get themselves worked up into such a state.

Do people really believe that teachers cannot assess a child by getting to know the child? Even if a teacher had a preconception about a name, good or bad, don't you realise that it will be very quickly forgotten once they start actually teaching the child. When you have a classroom of kids to deal with, you haven't got time or energy to assess whether someone is living up or down to their name.

Those people banging on about teachers prejudging need to have a think about the level to which they are judging those teachers, and writing them off as petty and shallow.

everlong - it seems that you are the only one who has chucked in that particular stereotype!

What I was getting at is that people think these things all the time and then berate others who have said them. They are not berating them for saying it as such, but berating them for thinking such a thing when often they have their own prejudices that they have chosen (probably wisely) not to say/type.

In that case I don't think it is fair to claim the moral high ground other than to comment that it's not a nice thing to say. It comes across a bit "holier than thou" and sometimes dishonest imho.