… to think that “Miss” and “Sir” for teachers is not equivalent?

[wallpoppy]

Just that really. Children say “miss” for female teachers of any age or seniority, but it’s “sir” for male teachers. As titles outside of school they aren’t remotely equivalent. It should Miss, mrs. or ms. surname for women and Mr. surname for men.

It works well because all the students can use miss or sir. They don't need to worry if they can't remember their teacher's name.

Yes it's always bothered me also!

Some schools use Sir & Madam

Are you proposing Miss and Mister or Sir and Madam?

It's bothered me too. I suppose an equivalent (other than Mr x / Mrs y) would be ma'am?

But I think it's probably a hold over from when female teachers really were miss - and left their jobs when they got married?

I have worked with a lot of female teachers who have refused to be called just "miss" as they saw it as being the poor female next to the men called "sir". They said it was full name ie Ms Smith or even by their first name. Anything was preferential to Miss.

It’s always been Mr or Miss/Mrs when I went to school.

The equivalent to a male officer in the forces who is addressed as sir is ma'am as in jam for female officers.

Totally agree. As did many others in the staffroom when I was a teacher.

Either Miss/Ms/Mrs X and Mr X, or Ma'am and Sir.

Yanbu, and maam would be better, except that it’s generally pronounced “”mum” which might feel weird.

Its not about the students remembering names its about females being the poor relation to the "sirs".

It is an archaic practice and should be outlawed.

I went to school for years in America, we had no problem remembering our teachers’ names but if we needed a short term of address it was sir or ma’am for older more forbidding teachers or even just… teacher. “Excuse me teacher may I (whatever). Very simple. And some teachers with long last name just went by Mr. B or Mrs. C.

The kids give literally zero thought to the status of whether they are yelling MISS MISS MISS or SIR SIR SIR,

It's just a generic teacher name.

We used Sir and Madam at my school.

Absolutely agree. The equivalent of Sir is madam, or m’am

miss is the poor relation to sir. Sir commands respect. Miss does nothing of the sort.

our school has dropped them for this reason and now insist on Mr or Ms/Mrs/miss surname. No sir or miss is allowed.

I think that it should be one title for all women in general life. It's hard enough for me as an adult to remember if each teacher is Miss/Mrs/Ms.

Miss doesn't sound like the female equivalent of Sir. Maybe Sir should be Mister or Miss should be Madam?

As a former university lecturer, I got round this by being Dr.

Most schools now are
Miss/Mrs/Ms/Mx Ma'am
Mr or Sir (Mx as well but I haven't yet seen a male use it)

Most teachers will choose their own form of address.

I was quite happy if they just remembered not to call me mum to be honest - or "teechaaa"

"Miss" is very handy - you can tell how trivial and tale-telly the complaint is going to be by the length they can drag out the "miiiiiiiiiiiiiiisss" to

What do teachers want to be addressed as?

Places I've worked at have used Sir and Ma'am. Which is fine for me except I'd rather as a poster mentioned already that there was one name/ title to refer to all teaching staff (I've always, always hated being referred to by my gender, I only just suck it up with Ms).

My schools it was miss and sir or Mrs this or Mr that etc. Outdated and puts women down.

Exactly. I think teachers should really be putting the kids first and not making it all about themselves.

My teenage niece and nephew go to one of the best public high schools in America, a school that is brilliantly academic while taking in students of all backgrounds, and they call most of their teachers by their first names. Which honestly would be my preference. I can’t see it happening here though 😂 can you imagine.

This.

If someone calls me missHamlet instead of mrs, I don't take offence. Why would I?

I get miss/Mrs/sir/mum interchangeably

Sir isn't often used in most primaries. It tends to be Mr... and Mrs... but you do hear just Miss for some female teachers. Maybe it comes from children at secondary interacting with teachers and other stuff that they don't actually know and who don't teach them.