AIBU to believe that 12 year olds are.....

[seeker]

...children and pupils, not young people and students? Agggggggggggghhhhhhhh!

YANBU.

YANBU. But I wouldn't call 12 year olds children to their faces. I'd say young people. And pupils.

They don't have "play time" either - they have "break".

YANBU Have found UK obsessed with making children grow up too soon! I mean homework at 4 years of age...what is that about!!!??

No problem with pupils, but I wouldn't refer to them as children in a school setting.

Interesting. Why wouldn't people call a 12 year old a child? I would - it's what they are! Or am I even more old fashioned than I realize?

We always use "young people" in my job (TIE theatre work in schools) for kids from about 8-10 upwards. The TIE shows I've done tend to avoid the words "children" or "kids" - it's "Hi guys/gang/group" etc. Something about "children" being a patronising term or some such tripe.

LOL I'd like to see you call a 12 year old a child to there face and live!

I dont see the difference between the term pupil and student.
They are still (esp in there parents eyes) children but they are entering into that no mans land between child and young adult so young people is an acceptable term.
After all a 12 year old usualy has some sort of responsibilty for themselves (getting themselves to school, doing homework, thinking about what classes they would like to do, maybe being home alone occasionaly) so desrve a bit of respect for those milestones.

Oh I agree that once they get to secondary school age, "young people" sounds a lot better. It's when you don't call 4 yr olds "children", just in case they feel patronised, that it starts to get a bit silly

A student is someone who takes active and reflective responsibility for his or her own learning. A pupil follows a set course of instruction and may be passive in the process as long as he/she fulfils the work required.

I reckon 12 year olds are pupils.

we were pupils that had break time at 12. We stopped having play time when we got to senior school.

Of course I would call a 12 year old a child to their face - I do regularly!

I don't think it's fair on them to expect them to be mini grown ups from such an early age - yes, they are starting to enter the adolescent no-man's land, but they aren't there yet, and it puts so much pressure on them.

I think "young people" sounds so much more patronizing than "children" when people in so-called authority use it. It sounds as if they are trying so hard! It also sounds to me as if they are abrogating their responsibility as adults. They are children, and adults should be responsible for them - they are not autonomous mini-adults!

I call teenagers 'children' on a regular basis, including my own. I love the distinction between students and pupils...by that definition the majority are pupils until upper sixth or uni.

I recently went to a year 7 Homework Evening, Man, where the head was telling us that the pupils needed to learn to 'study' and not just do homework. And thereupon a rather tedious speech followed. But there is an expectation for 12 year olds (and before then too) to start researching their own projects and studying a little, rather than just being passive

YANBU. Give it a bit longer and they'll be 'clients'

Roffles at Tsar!

Was this in a school context? I would expect a secondary school to use the same language for all who attend the school, and in that context student and young person is probably more acceptable because a 15 year old does not want to be called a child. Personally I intend to call my children my children all their life, but that's about my relationship to them, and nothing to do with their age.

Young person to me equals adolescent, and I do think 12 years olds are, on the whole adolescents (as in hitting puberty).

Student/pupil doesn't really bother me one way or another, although I would only have regarded myself as a student at university.

Yanbu.

Bloody nonsense.

There's a theatre school near us that advertises course for "young adults" aged something like 8+

But actually, the 12 year olds I know are moving very fast away from being children and young people seems OK to me.

I always use student written (for reasons nooka gives)but tbh made a point of calling the kids in the secondary PRU children (and to their faces) because lots of them needed reminding that they were, in fact,children (too much,too young ). Patronising, what? I am their teacher,not their mate (HATE 'guys').