Calling teachers Sir and Miss 'depressing and sexist'

[Ant]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27403902My link

 

Calling teachers "Sir" or "Miss" is depressing, sexist and gives women in schools a lower status than their male counterparts, an academic has said.

 

Prof Jennifer Coates told the Times Educational Supplement "Sir is a knight... but Miss is ridiculous - it doesn't match Sir at all".

 

She said she had been struck by the disparity while volunteering in a secondary school.

 

But one educationalist said being called "Miss" was a sign of respect.

 

Prof Coates, emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at the University of Roehampton, said she had been surprised by the different titles given to male and female teachers.

 

If I'm in a school where students don't know me and they call me Miss, I'm fine with that. They're showing respect by giving me a title”

 

End Quote Debbie Coslett Brook Learning Trust "I didn't think there was this awful disparity between professorial status and these young teachers, but they're all Sir and I'm not.

 

"It's a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job they are, are given high status."

 

'Showing respect' Professor Sara Mills of Sheffield Hallam University said UK schools were moving towards allowing pupils to address their teachers by their first name.

 

"Sometimes teachers find that they can control students more when they try to stress the similarities between them, rather than trying to keep as distant as possible," she told the TES.

 

But Debbie Coslett, chief executive of the Brook Learning Trust in south-east England, said there was not a disparity between "Sir" and "Miss".

 

"My response is always that my name isn't Miss; it's Mrs Coslett.

 

"But if I'm in a school where students don't know me and they call me Miss, I'm fine with that. They're showing respect by giving me a title."

 

_____________

 

People are mad

 

 

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

people have too much time on their hands if this bothers them

[whitewidow]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27403902My link

 

But Debbie Coslett, chief executive of the Brook Learning Trust in south-east England, said there was not a disparity between "Sir" and "Miss".

 

"My response is always that my name isn't Miss; it's Mrs Coslett.

 

"But if I'm in a school where students don't know me and they call me Miss, I'm fine with that. They're showing respect by giving me a title."

 

 

Yeah whatever, two sugars and hurry up.

[Swan Red]

you're divorced?

[whitewidow]

you're divorced?

not yet

[Swan Red]

unlucky

[Ripley]

National Association of SCHOOLMASTERS and Union of Women TEACHERS has always seemed a weird name for a union in this age.

[kozma]

National Association of SCHOOLMASTERS and Union of Women TEACHERS has always seemed a weird name for a union in this age.

It was two unions which merged.

[whitewidow]

It was two unions which merged.

I suspect it was more a majestic school masters union takeover of the weak women's teachers club.

[Ripley]

It was two unions which merged.

I know but it's still a ridiculous merged name.

 

Shouldn't all "providers of education services" be in one union anyway?

[matty]

I know but it's still a ridiculous merged name.

 

Shouldn't all "providers of education services" be in one union anyway?

With those splitters?

[Duncan Disorderly]

The National Union of Three-Months-Off-A-Year-Not-Including-Baker-Days-And-Bank-Holidays-And-Holy-Days-With-Decent-Pay Moaners.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Do you count your training days as days off?

[Des]

The National Union of Three-Months-Off-A-Year-Not-Including-Baker-Days-And-Bank-Holidays-And-Holy-Days-With-Decent-Pay Moaners. ;)/>/>

 

LOL!!!!!!

 

Edited May 16, 2014 by Des

[Falconhoof]

The bbc documentary series about women in art is very good. There's a good story of how hard women have had to struggle to pursue a life as an artist.

One thing I found fascinating was the depiction of Susanna and the elders by Artemesia Gentileschi

 

Compare it to the, many, depictions of that Biblical scene by the great male renaissance painters of the day.

[Duncan Disorderly]

The finger pointing up, even though in this painting it's depicting the lack of dissemination of knowledge to women, is traditionally the symbol of John the Baptist as the higher authority than Christ.

[matty]

The finger pointing up, even though in this painting it's depicting the lack of dissemination of knowledge to women, is traditionally the symbol of John the Baptist as the higher authority than Christ.

Is that what it is here?

 

I can't recall seeing other depictions of Susanna and the elders, despite spending vast amounts of time in galleries.

[Ripley]

Is that what it is here?

 

I can't recall seeing other depictions of Susanna and the elders, despite spending vast amounts of time in galleries.

But you won a goldfish in a bag for shooting off all 6 tin cans

[matty]

But you won a goldfish in a bag for shooting off all 6 tin cans ;)/>

I'll treat that remark with the content it deserves.

[Leo No.8]

Why would this person find the term 'Miss' insulting in comparison to 'Sir'? That seems the most sexist thing of all about this story. Simple fact is they just don't want to assume she's married, if anything I think that's polite, and there's nothing derogatory about being a Miss.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Why would this person find the term 'Miss' insulting in comparison to 'Sir'? That seems the most sexist thing of all about this story. Simple fact is they just don't want to assume she's married, if anything I think that's polite, and there's nothing derogatory about being a Miss.

 

Think the point is that "Sir" is honorific. A girl is "miss" from birth; "sir" implies a figure of respect.

 

Not sure it's worth a thread either way.

[charlie clown]

The thing that I find amazing about it is that a retired professor of English is 'surpised' by it. And people say that academics live in a bubble removed from reality....

[Falconhoof]

We had names for teachers, I'm sure everybody does. I had a physics teacher that we called 'Mr Miyagi' because he was short (not Japanese)

Another physics teacher I christened 'Sea hag' but I don't think that's sexist.

[Tommok]

We had a teacher called Mr McClelland but he answered to the name Mr Bellend.

[Ramón Benítez Hernández]

We had a biology teacher called Mrs. Cunliffe.

 

No, you don't get 5 quid for guessing what we called her.