Reply to At what area high schools do students address teachers by their first names?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]While I don't think the first name thing would be a deal breaker for us if we preferred a school overall, I would not consider it an added benefit.  Could someone explain the philosophy behind it and why it is a preferred approach at the schools that use it.

Most of what has been posted thus far is that it is not a negative, but presumably the school feels there is a benefit or they wouldn't do it.  [b]So why is it a positive[/b][i]?[/quote]

Please remember Georgetown Day School's proud history as the first private school in Washington, DC to integrate African American students, and also greater numbers of Jewish and otherwise excluded classes of students (for reasons of ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual preference).  In permitting and encouraging GDS students to call their teachers -- who after all represent the dominant power structure  -- by their first names, Georgetown Day School sent the very important message (particularly in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s) to its students that this is a place of fellowship where all of the community meets on equal footing, regardless of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual, or socioeconomic status.  Perhaps that now seems like a vestigial motivation or reason to use first names, in what today should be an integrated, fully accepting of others, post-racial America.  But looking around, I am not sure that message will ever go out of style.   [/quote]

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