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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
DD's teacher won't call her by her nickname
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Anonymous
Because then DCUM will say, "OMG! This child is doomed to a life of part-time minimum-wage temporary jobs, because all she has to put on her resume is a NICKNAME instead of a REAL NAME!!!!!111!" You can't win. |
Anonymous
Haha this is sooo true! |
Anonymous
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I have a full name and a nickname--Constance and Connie. Mostly I am called Connie. A few friends call me Constance. In professional settings, I go by Constance more often than Connie. In school, sometimes teachers would call me Constance for a while until they got that peers called me Connie. It's not really at all a big deal.
This experience is shared by the Kate/Katherines and the Lizzie/Elizabeths and the Becky/Rebeccas and the Jacqueline/Jackies and the Annabelle/Annies and the Melissa/Mellies of the world. It is simply a non-issue. The teacher will probably realize after a couple weeks that all of your daughters peers call her Bella and start calling her Bella. Right now she's learning names and probably using the photo roster, which has her full legal name on it. If she's a first grader, she's old enough to get the idea that she has a full name and a nickname, and that in some settings people will call her by her full name. She can certainly correct her teacher and say she prefers being called Bella. However, it's hardly a unique or traumatic experience. |
Anonymous
+1. And thanks to the OP above who's as sick of the nasty-one-liner troll(s) as I am. I would not be surprised to find out most of them are from the same angry loser. |
Anonymous
Yeah, to me too. I'm a teacher, and learning names is tough. Granted, I teach high school, so see 150 kids / day and typically learn their names in 3 days, but I'm sure I make plenty of mistakes like this one (not to mention pronunciation errors in names not common to me, etc.) If a parent wrote me a note asking me to use a particular name, I'd certainly make every effort possible to remember, but maybe you just need to cut this person some slack. I know that my tendency is DEFINITELY to use full names- it seems more formal, and with the older kids, it often connotes a sort of sternness, if that makes any sense. |
Anonymous
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Step 1: Send a note clarifying (you've already done this)
Step 2: Take your child to school one morning, early, before school starts, visit the teacher for 5 minutes and talk to her. Tell her how much you appreciate her teaching your child, but there is an issue that is bothering both you and your daugher, Bella. Tell her that both you and Bella would prefer that she be addressed as Bella and it is upsetting Bella enough that she is starting to dislike the class. Ask if the teacher can please remember to call her Bella from now on. Step 3: Make a tee shirt with this, or just buy some name stickers and have her wear this to school: 
Even if they have a dress code, dress her in this shirt and tell the school administration that you had to break school dress code because the teacher could not learn Bella's preferred name without this. |
Anonymous
| Complain to the teacher if she call your daughter Chabella. |
Anonymous
| Whatever you do OP, please call the teacher the wrong name everytime you see her. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for your opinions everybody.
Bella is named after her great-grandmother Isabella who died literally while I was in labor. Literally nobody else calls her Isabella. On her school form under first name I wrote (isa)Bella and then under nickname I wrote Bella. On the first day of school she wore a shirt that has a little pocket with a "B" on it. I will talk to the teacher in person. If things don't change I will speak with the assistant principal, who Bella told me is very nice and waves or chats with her each day. |
Anonymous
I am trying to be snarky but you should consider changing her name legally if this bother you so much |
Anonymous
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I am a teacher, but not a classroom teacher. Some of the kindergarten teachers at my school insist on calling students by their formal names, even though the students don't go by their formal names. Their reasoning is that the students need to know their first names and be able to spell it, read it, etc.
Let me say first that I don't agree with this and have had many conversations with them but they won't budge on their thinking. These are the teachers who should be thinking about retirement soon IMO (not just for that reason of course--but it's one example of how rigid thinking can inhibit relationship building with students). It is more of a cultural thing with most of my students. In some cultures people have a first name, but actually go by their middle name. The kids are too shy (or don't speak enough English) to correct the teachers. Sometimes we don't know the name kids go by until a family member comes to pick them up and asks for "Samantha" and we know her as "Diana". I do see a need to draw the line somewhere though. We had a student who would not respond to anything but "Godzilla King Kong" and another who would only say his name was "Giraffe." So there's that. OP- maybe your child's teacher has the same views as some of the teachers at my school. Maybe tell the teacher that you plan to work with your daughter at home to make sure she can read and write her given name, but you don't plan to call her anything but Bella and you'd appreciate if she did too. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| OP, I am a teacher. I know, and have had teachers who only want to call students by their full name. I think it stems from students preferring their nickname, and the teacher wanting them to be comfortable with their full name. I don't really agree with it, and am fine with nicknames. But I can't imagine the teacher would say no if that was the parents' request as well. |
Anonymous
| have your dd come up with a funny nickname for the teacher and only use that until she gets it right. |
Anonymous
| My name is Christen and my 3rd grade teacher "corrected" the spelling of my name on my work for the first few weeks. Very bizarre. I still remember it. But not scarred by it. |
Anonymous
| I don't understand why so many people are asking why OP would have named her child Isabella in the first place, or suggesting she legally change the name. It's such common thing to use nicknames! Did you not grow up with a classroom full of kids called Katie, Brad, Billy, Jenny, Joey, etc? Some of you are acting like you've never heard of such a thing as asking a teacher to call you by a nickname. Either some bizarrely clueless people here, or are you just being deliberately obtuse? |