Names have power, so it makes sense that young humans, who are generally in search of both identity and some amount of power over their own lives, will often try to exert some control over their own names.
In Florida, we are not allowed to call students by any other name than that which is on their birth certificate, unless we have written permission from parents. I could see the rationale if it were entirely based on teachers shortening or changing multicultural names for the ease of pronunciation but it’s so ‘teachers can’t change the gender’ of students. (I’m paraphrasing.) As if we have run around, vicariously adjusting genders as we see fit. 🙄
This is such an important piece. There is a clear split between those who believe that the role of teachers (and adults more broadly) is to have facts and to give those facts directly to students and those who understand that knowledge is a relationship-based process and that facts can only get you so far before you run into the messy complexity of the real world.
When your view of the world is so simplistic as to make everything binary, you can easily tell people you know what's right and are only doing what is best for them. This mindset is incredibly authoritarian as it implies that a "correct" in group should be allowed to impose their beliefs (religious or otherwise) on an out group whose autonomy is not to be respected because they are clearly incorrect.
In Florida, we are not allowed to call students by any other name than that which is on their birth certificate, unless we have written permission from parents. I could see the rationale if it were entirely based on teachers shortening or changing multicultural names for the ease of pronunciation but it’s so ‘teachers can’t change the gender’ of students. (I’m paraphrasing.) As if we have run around, vicariously adjusting genders as we see fit. 🙄
This is such an important piece. There is a clear split between those who believe that the role of teachers (and adults more broadly) is to have facts and to give those facts directly to students and those who understand that knowledge is a relationship-based process and that facts can only get you so far before you run into the messy complexity of the real world.
When your view of the world is so simplistic as to make everything binary, you can easily tell people you know what's right and are only doing what is best for them. This mindset is incredibly authoritarian as it implies that a "correct" in group should be allowed to impose their beliefs (religious or otherwise) on an out group whose autonomy is not to be respected because they are clearly incorrect.