“Miss” and “Sir” in schools

[MyCleverGrayBear]

Been to lots of secondary school open days recently. At the state secondaries the children showing parents around etc called the teachers “Sir” and “Miss”. Is that normal? I haven’t heard this IRL ever.

(To be clear, “Miss, this parent wants to know about languages at school” vs “Mrs Jones, this parent would like to see the sports centre”. But also in a couple of classrooms there were children constantly saying “Miss, look at this, Miss, I’ve out the sign up, Miss, shall I stand here” etc and it was incredibly grating.)

And why are female teachers “Miss” and make teachers “Sir”? I felt like I was in a bad 80’s Grange Hill episode and Benny Hill was about to run in and chase me 🫣

I don’t think the kids analyse the titles. In my experience, they don’t think Miss is lower than Sir.

I was Miss for 20 years and it honestly never bothered me.

It's the norm, yes. That's why you hear it on TV. Not just Grange Hill, but there was a series called 'Please Sir'.

We did use Mr/Mrs/Miss x in my primary school, but Sir and Miss at secondary as did every other school I knew of. It was nothing to do with being able to remember the teachers' names and was just the rule of the school.

"Sir" just means
"male of higher rank than me"

hence why its used SO WIDELY in the USA
that does not have peerages

yes-sir-ee

What I would object to is a teacher being called by their first name. I'd prefer Miss surname, or Mrs surname, or Mr surname. Miss and Sir are a second choice option to me.

1970s and 80s when I was at school it was a mix, some teachers insisted on Mr/ Mrs Surname others were happy with Sir/Miss, we soon knew who to call what!
DD works in a college. When they star, most automatically call her Miss and soon drop it for her first name.

At DS school they have to say Sir and Madam. Half the time he has no clue what his teachers names are as he never has reason to say it

Both sound a bit too posh and stuck up to me.
I am so used to ‘Miss’ now and to me it shows respect. Especially when it is said ‘Thanks Miss’ and ‘Have a good weekend Miss’, as it was this afternoon. On the end of a sentence it feels special. There’s a lot of fantastic kids out there and it makes it simple for them when their days are truly bonkers in my opinion. School is tough.

When I was at school, some of the more old fashioned teachers might have replied to that with 'you're welcome, what?' and made you say it again with 'sir' at the end. That wasn't the majority of them though.

Ma’am probably sounds better and more natural with an American accent, especially with a southern accent. It sounds far too stiff and unnatural in an English accent, imho. Especially as it’s more associated with the late Queen.

What would be sexist would be not having the choice.

I’ve never heard Sir and Miss IRL. Been in countless schools but all independent. And I thought that was the general experience on this thread too. Sorry if that’s tedious in any way.

I know of one secondary school where they call the teachers by their first names. And they don't wear school uniform either 😁

Mine do too, in Irish primary and secondary school

I didn't think calling women teachers 'miss' had been the norm for decades. My late DM never allowed it in her primary classes, always 'Mrs Dragon' (unfortunately not her real name). And she'd have been 100 by now so I'm going back many, many decades.

DDs school also called their teachers by their correct title (Mr, Miss/Mrs/Ms/Dr and for a short while Rev) and surname.

Calling teachers 'miss' is disrespectful and sexist.

They CAN decide which title and surname to use to be referred to, but they will be addressed as Sir or Miss. So you'd say Miss Smith is your music teacher, but the children will directly address her as just Miss.

“Too posh and stuck up” is no better than “too common and chavvy”.

That's when they don't call you Mum 😂

Thank you @ErrolTheDragon

I think you could make an argument for Sir and Madam, rather than Miss.

Mr and Madam obviously don't go together because Madam is standalone, but Mr can't be used on its own like Monsieur can in French.

I’d rather be called Miss than Bunny at school. I honestly thought there were far more pressing problems being a teacher than churning the word Miss around in one’s head. Fascinating thread really.

You can't have been schooled in the UK. This is the norm. Miss as only unmarried women were allowed to teach, when they married they had to stop working. Sir as a sign of respect.

"And isn’t “Mr” the (male) equivalent of Miss / Ms ? Instead of Sir?"

No, not as a way of addressing someone without their surname.

With the surname you can use Mr/Mrs/Ms and other titles.

Without the surname you can use Sir, Madam or Miss.

Yeah "Sir" & "Miss" are used here way more than Miss/Sir So & So, unless the students are talking about you to another teacher/staff member

I think the pronunciation here is different. I can hear an American saying “Hello Maarm”, but unless I am mistaken in the UK, it would be “Hello M’am” . But I am from the North.

But how many female teachers have actually told you they don’t like it? Because overwhelmingly on this thread they don’t seem to care. As I said earlier, if they did then that would be different, but there’s no point championing a cause that those involved don’t care about. Redirect your passion towards women who really need it. And there are many.