I am an oldtimer, a long time tenured proffie at a state uni in the golden state.I'm pissy about a number of things, take great offense at others, but a recent "modern student" item just perplexes me.
On the first week I call out the roster, learning some names. My TAs take attendance normally, but I like to learn some names, at least of the front row folks who I've learned will actually be active.
I say, "If I mispronounce your name, please correct me. I want to get it right."
Then I'll say, "Kristi-AHHHna? Is that right, or is it Kristi-ana?"
And a little girl will invariably look at me and say, "It doesn't matter."
Or, "AlySHA, are you here? Or is it Alyssa?"
"I'm here. Call me whatever."
And I often say, "How about I call you Roger? I mean, if you really don't care."
And they stare at me. How can they not care what they're called? Are they so numbed by the world that it really doesn't matter? Are they brain damaged? Do they care so little about the whole college experience that they just want to avoid having to think or decide anything?
Fucking kids.
Now you see one effect of the chronically overscheduled and oversupervised, helicopter parenting they've suffered: they expect you to micro-manage them, even down to the pronounciation of their own flippin' names. Just call them all "Peckerhead": they're all the same anyway, you know.
ReplyDeleteIs it mainly the women who react this way? If so, it's more that society has taught them to be "nice" and to not inconvenience people. Women who are very much like that tend to be so accommodating that they just fade into he background. Background faders will end up at inpersonal places and perhaps want it that way.
ReplyDeleteI'm also guessing that you teach a big UC or Cal State. My students at a big UC didn't care much about being personally known to me (of course, some liked that I knew their names but a bunch couldn't have cared less). That's just the type of student huge schools attract.
Sometimes I amuse myself by going through names like Xiaomin and Nguyen and Yasukuni like they're completely commonplace here, and then pretending to struggle with the others: "KRIStinAH BROOkuhs? MEEEkal SMEETHE? Oh, MIIIchael? Huh. DAfyDD petERsssen?"
ReplyDeleteI get it with the guys, too. 'So do you go by John or Jonathan?' 'Oh, whatever.' Then they sign e-mails with 'Jake' or 'Jay' or 'Giovanni'.
It's learned at some earlier age, maybe because they encounter too many teachers who either don't care about the correct pronunciation or are incapable of saying the name correctly even if they do care.
ReplyDeleteI teach high school, and I've seen both situations way more frequently than I am comfortable with. I ask each student on the first day of school to clarify the pronunciation, and spend the first week of school walking around with a clipboard muttering names under my breath and making every effort to talk to each kid every day using their name.
We've now been in session for 6 weeks, and some of my colleagues STILL don't know their students' names. =(
A student by any other name would smell as putrid.
ReplyDeleteThis happens to me all the time. I have always chalked it up to an attempt to be "polite" and defer to the professor, even in the pronunciation of their names (I live in Canada), but I have no idea if that's what it's actually about.
ReplyDeleteI get exhausted with the name situation. All of my boys want to be called Skooter or Skeets or Ramrod or somesuch, and then they sign their papers Richard, Glenn, or Will.
ReplyDeleteI say we stop giving them options. Call them the name on their driver's license.
Oh, see, I'm in a lousy mood this morning after a terrible volleyball game last night!
My name is Jonathan, and I introduce myself as Jonathan. Regardless, about half the people I meet call me "Jon". After years of responding to both names, I have very little preference for my full name over the alternative. If I cared one iota less, it literally would not matter to me at all. Your students may be in that place.
ReplyDeleteAlso,they probably don't expect you to remember anyway, so there's no point getting it right.
ReplyDeleteI do something like this- it's because you don't want to put others to any trouble, because correcting someone of higher status is Not Good (even if it's about a name), and because a fair number of teachers get names wrong and treat it like no big deal.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed this, too. I respond with "well, which is it?" then wait for them to answer. It usually just takes calling out one and the rest usually become more forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteMy for-reals name is one that is regularly shortened. I went through high school being called a shortened version that I loathed, just to go along. As a grown up, I finally realized I could refuse to play along. I correct people now.
I do the same thing on the first day of class, and I tell them that if it doesn't matter, I'll assign them a name of my choosing. Sometimes they laugh. Sometimes they give me what they prefer. Sometimes they shrug because they don't give a tea party about the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's the root of it all. They don't care. They care about their names when they're in a situation that they think matters. Their lack of interest in correcting you gives you the cold, hard truth of it: it doesn't matter because you, professor, don't matter. You're as real to them as anyone else they perceive to be in a position of servitude.
That's why we're here on our little blog, isn't it? The misery, right?
And then sometimes it matters so much that they tell you a new name. Like "Ann", whose real names were Melissa Rachel, but we already had a Melissa and a Rachel higher in the alphabet, and she couldn't deal with having another student with her name.
ReplyDeleteGot another one this term, male this time: not Jonathan or John (since we have one of each) but Ivan. At least that one makes sense given the etymology.
I had an undergrad professor that assigned everyone a nickname. Woe to those who didn't like their assigned name- one guy went from "Jennifer" to "Sissy." I wonder if the seats in the room had names and where you sat determined your name.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the first week of fall quarter, and have been paying attention to the name thing each class session. Every student with an unusual name offered up their preferred pronunciation with no prodding or pouting on my part. Perhaps they are all pod people, to continue the alliteration. How peculiar, in any event.
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