What's wrong with calling kids "students"?
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Anonymous
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Our elementary refers to the students as "scholars". I don't have an issue with this, scholar is a fine word even if it doesn't roll off my tongue. However, in the last month I have seen people corrected when they've used the word "students" to refer to the kids, once in person by an admin and another time in a group email exchange among parents (the corrector is a PTO officer). Apparently we are not supposed to use the word students at all if we can avoid it. I've asked a few other parents but no one has had an explanation for why, just that the school adopted the "scholars" language a while back and I guess is pushing it harder this year.
Can anyone explain this to me? What is wrong with the word "students" and why is "scholars" better? I feel like I'm a pretty culturally aware person but this one has be stumped. |
Anonymous
| It's stupid and has been going on for 15 years - like it makes a difference to the kids. Some kind of education-magic-speak and more evidence of why we have WAY too many administrators and too few teachers! |
Anonymous
| I was a teacher at a school that would reprimand teachers who used the word student instead of scholar. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word student, and schools that function under the belief that no one should be allowed to say it tend to be abusive places. I would never send my children to a school that used the word scholars (think KIPP, DC Scholars, Achievement Prep, etc.). |
Anonymous
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It's stupid and pretentious.
But the reasoning is that scholar implies a person who is studying. While a student implies that the teacher is trying to teach them. They think that scholar is a more active learner than student. But mainly its pretentious. |
Anonymous
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The school is wrong to insist, and also wrong about the traditional definition of the word scholar. A scholar, understood traditionally, is a person much further along in their education than a child at school - they are usually a subject matter expert in their field. Now I grant you that the English language evolves constantly, but the school should not insist on the word change. It makes them look ridiculous. To use that term to refer to children is absurd. There is nothing shameful about the word student. I would continue to use it. |
Anonymous
| Our school uses learner which is awkward and sounds silly. My kids are students. They are learning, but to call them learners is contrived. |
Anonymous
| I prefer pupil. |
Anonymous
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OP here and thank you for the explanation, that is helpful. We are just at our IB public school so this isn't some charter ideology.
I was honestly worried that it turned out there is something racist or pejorative about the term student that I didn't understand so I'm actually relieved to learn this is just some jargon some people in education prefer. |
Anonymous
| This is absolutely idiotic. I refer to school kids as students and anyone who corrected me will be told off for being pretentious. |
Anonymous
| This is absurd. |
Anonymous
| Young kids are pupils. High school and college kids are students. Grad students and university professors are scholars. |
Anonymous
| I prefer learners. |
Anonymous
| Even the FAA asks flight instructors to sue the word learners. |
Anonymous
It's so clunky. It sounds like a made-up word. We already have the word student. |
Anonymous
| This is all news to me and I've been with FCPS for 30 years. We all say "students". |