Reply to How annoyed would you be if the school kept getting your child's name wrong?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are members of an ethnic minority and I regard teachers who refuse to pronounce/learn my child's name as engaging in a form of micro-aggression.  Here's an interesting article to read:
https://www.academia.edu/192884/Kohli_R._and_Sol%C3%B3rzano_D._2012_Teachers_please_learn_our_names_Racial_Microagressions_and_the_K-12_Classroom._Race_Ethnicity_and_Education

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I've got a last name literally no one has ever pronounced right on the first try, and most people don't [i]ever[/i] pronounce right. My biracial kids have non-American, unusual names and even close friends sometimes say them wrong. DH's name is so impossible to pronounce that he goes by a completely different name in America.

It's not a microaggression. It's people trying to do their best with something linguistically unfamiliar. The more we encourage people to become familiar with our ethnic names, the better they will do. Attacking people who mistakenly say our names wrong will just make them defensive and make them dislike foreign-sounding names. I prefer to live with a more generous spirit and assume they mean well and are trying.

And don't forget: native English speakers can't hear or distinguish some sounds at all. That's some of the problem right there, and being angry about it doesn't rewire others' brains or make them neurologically able to hear/reproduce those sounds![/quote]

As a teacher, I consider myself to be in a different situation than a random stranger.  If I'm expecting your child to come into my classroom and learn and use 100's of new words, the least I can do to reciprocate is to get their name right.   Now, if I'm making a good faith effort and I can't roll the R in the right way or something that's different.  Most people appreciate the effort.  I had a kid I worked with once for a week who was named "Sian" (with a circumflex over the i).  She and I had several conversations that went approximately like this (to my ear)

Sian: You're saying my name wrong.  It's Shawn.

Me: Shawn.  Shawn.  Is that right?

Sian: No, Shawn's a boy's name.  My name's Shawn.

Me: Shawn

Sian: No, that's an Irish name.  My name is the Welsh name Shawn. . .

I just couldn't hear it, but at least she knew I was trying.

In contrast, there was the year I student taught and we got a new Kindergartener named Joao Paolo (with a tilde above the first a), and the lead teacher essentially said "I can't learn to pronounce that!" and wrote John Paul on everything.  This was before the kid walked in the door.  To me that's a perfect example of a micro aggression.  [/quote]
You are a nice teacher. :)

My son's name is misspelled on about half the time on the art projects he does for school. (Think something like "Junah" instead of "Jonah") but I haven't said anything because, eh. Most of those art projects are getting tossed anyway. (He's just 2, so he's not writing his name himself yet).

But I also understand the OP's irritation. If she were staying in the center I'd recommend a gentle reminder of how your child's name is spelled; since she's leaving, I would just say to let it go. There is some freedom in not getting too worked up about relatively minor things.

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