… 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.

@Holly60 It is disrespectful when you have asked the children to call you "Mrs Moose" and they continue to call you "Miss".

I always use Ms X or Mr X when addressing a teacher.

I worked in a call centre where you had to use Sir for the gentlemen callers. 😬

I think if you asked the majority of year 7s if they respected their male teachers more because they had to call them Sir, but their female teachers less because they call them Miss, they'd look at you like you have two heads!

I think if you are going to be offended simply by children not using your full title but instead using the generally and widely accepted alternative, your going to have a tough time teaching.

Exactly!

And I agree that it's not harmless. These "little things" are exactly how children absorb from early on that women are lower status than men. And of course it seems normal to them and they "don't mind it" when they grow up themselves.

Also - mister is not the equivalent to miss.

It's master.

At my grammar school we just used Mr surname or Mrs/Miss/Ms surname. At my brother's grammar school they used Sir and Ma'am.

In my DC'S school they say "teacher" with a hand in the air over Ms/Mr.

It was the same when I was a child, 20 DC repeating "teacher, teacher"

My DD new school doesn't use any titles all staff use their first name.

Yeah, yeah. And sexism doesn't exist it society at all. Or people just become sexist once they grow up.

@Holly60 If they have been requested to use a name, then it's rude not to use it. It doesn't matter if other teachers go by "Miss". Also, I had no problem teaching and was rather good at it. The ridiculous amount of useless paperwork, underfunding, and hoops to jump that were holding back countless children from learning and achieving their potential was the reason I left.

I never went to a school where Sir or Miss were used - it was always Mr/Mrs/Miss Surname, and something generic would have been considered rude and sounded very odd. Ditto at my children’s school. DH is a teacher and gets Sir, but I don’t think they have an equivalent for female staff. Very funny out of context when he gets “Hi Sir!” in the supermarket.

I read somewhere that it came from the 19th century and married women were not allowed to be teachers and naturally they were then all “miss”. Don’t know how true that is.

anyway, lots of secondary schools use ma’am or madam now

Sir and Madam in my school

The way round this is to have a phd and be referred to as Dr Whatever. Always quite jealous of the staff who can do that and really liked when they used Dr Name as their title.

@TheMoth usually when trying to get their attention the kids here say "miss/mrs surname" or "mr surname" then ask the question or put their hand up and when the teacher acknowledges them would just say "can I please go to the toilet" without addressing their name

Agree have always thought this

I prefer teacher to miss.

I agree that the 'sir' seems to give male teachers a higher status. The kids may not consciously pick up on it as in, they give it NO thought because they don't care, but at the same time they'll absorb it on a sub conscious level.

The way round this is to have a phd and be referred to as Dr Whatever. Always quite jealous of the staff who can do that and really liked when they used Dr Name as their title.
Really.
Like Ross Geller.

I cannot believe this sort of blatant sexism is still common place tbh. I hate it.

Sir and Madam in the school I work at

I got dad. Twice .

Does is sound like "Mom"?

Only as in Sir Paul McCartney and Dame Judi Dench.

The equivalency is common parlance is sir and madam. "Ma'am" is an abbreviation of "madam."

Talk about finding problems where there aren't any. Haven't pupils got enough to be learning without being corrected as to how they address a selfabsorbed teacher?

@Culldesack
read that message back really really slowly. Then go back and look at the reasoned debate on the thread carefully.

Then ask yourself if what you really took away from this is a self absorbed teacher or why you felt the need to post something so obviously dismissive and goady.