Uplifting News

I hope he gets hit by a car

My 6th grade teacher did exactly this, but went beyond normal nicknames and said if there's ANYTHING you want to be called she would use that name instead. Granted, every teacher before that would hear the nicknames and just use them anyway, but this one went a step beyond that.

Not a single kid used their birth name. Some used regular nicknames, some used their parents nickname for them, and some chose something else. I went the cringier route and chose "silent hill because I like that game and I'm usually quiet" and sure enough she called me that all year. Had the nicknames down by the end of the week and still knew each child's real name for when she's talking to other adults.

I don't see what the big deal is with using someone's preferred name. Legitimately the only reason to not use it in this context is to be a piece of shit.

Throughout all of my years at school, ending in late 2010s they always at some point around first day asked something similar too, but it was mostly just another name you go by rather than nickname.

Totally agree they should do something like that as a requirement, though.

Ah, allow me to introduce you to the orphan crushing machine. It was born of a tweet:

"Every heartwarming human interest story in america is like "he raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine" and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you'd need to pay to prevent it from being used."

But it is uplifting seeing a bigot face consequences.

Oh, you'd be surprised the states that would disagree with you.

Well......maybe "surprised" isn't the word. I assume you follow the news. Maybe "deeply saddened with humanity and it's inability to tolerate those different than them" is a better word.......although I suppose that's many words.

Oh well. Life is funny like that. Always surprising you. Or....rather deeply saddening with humanity and it's inability to tolerate those different than them as it were.

After 30 or so roll calls and doing them every day I'm pretty sure you would remember that Greg goes by Molly. It's not that hard to remember your students' names.

Unless every kid in your class has a different name then maybe it might get difficult, but at that point the roll call paper would be pointless and they may as well just print it with the preferred names on it

They probably should just print it with the preferred names anyways.

I feel like remembering people's names properly is a superpower teachers have. I sure as Hell don't understand how they manage it, but in my experience they consistently manage it.

(Besides, I assume they could just annotate the attendance list with the preferred names/pronouns on the first day of school.)

I was always called by the "shortened, nickname" version of my actual first name, in Catholic school, starting in 1975. Plenty of other kids where, too: Richard, Rich; Robert, Bob; Jennifer, Jenny; Elizabeth, Beth. There is no problem referring to someone with their preferred name.

I will confirm that it requires real conscious effort to use someone's preferred pronouns, when you have been referring to them with different pronouns all their lives, as well as having the deep inertia of the English language set like concrete in your brain -- especially when they themselves are navigating the minefield of gender identity as a teenager right along with you. I do tend to rankle a bit at "constructed" pronouns (think "xe"), because I feel that insisting that everyone immediately use placeholder words that have not firmly made their way into the lexicon is asking a bit too much. I will happily use the singular they/them; that's something which has been in common usage that way for a very long time, and is not gender specific.

Maybe something like "xe" will end up as common usage, and I'm fine with that, too. Being old, it would certainly take me more time and effort to adopt that than younger people would have to expend, and I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

A teacher gets to know their students and will use nicknames like Bill and Jim in place of. William and James on request. Any teacher who doesn't do that is an asshole who shouldn't be teaching kids.

This teacher lost their job because they continued to refuse to use the child's preferred name and tried to hide behind bigotry as a justification.

My parents told me that not wanting to use my birth name is not "honoring my mother and father", which is what the bible says to do.