Reply to How are kids supposed to address professors? Dr., Professor, first name? Daughter got rude reaction

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, your daughter is very rude and gauche.  She needs to understand that she can't treat her college professors the way she treated her high school teachers because 1. her college profs do not care about her helicopter mommy's wrath,  2. your daughter is not, in fact, as special as (you insisted) everyone allowed her to believe in high school, and 3.  she is making a fool of herself and will continue to do so into the workplace if she doesn't learn this now.

I was a TA in grad school.  I asked students to call me by my first name because I was not a professor.  However, professors were addressed as Dr. or Professor.  Even as a grad student, the default method of addressing a prof was Dr. or Professor: presuming familiarity by defaulting to first name is breathtakingly rude.

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[b]A helicopter parent would make sure their child addressed people properly[/b].[/quote]

Unfortunately this isn't the case.  I teach high school.  Most of my students are lovely, but I have a handful who speak (and email) with a kind of condescending familiarity that comes from parents who teach them educators are to be commanded and scorned ("We're paying customers!").  I often wonder about how this works out for them when they go to college.  Now, from this thread, I know.

I also get a lot of one sentence emails from high school seniors who really should know better.  Advisors and teachers have tried to talk to them about this, but it changes nothing.  Will they email their college professors like this?

"Hey I'm going to be skiing with my family next week so can you send me your lesson plans for what I miss?"

"My mom said she emailed u about my grade but u didn't change it and i work relly hard on my writting so i don't know why u gave me a C"

"I think its unfair to make us read a book when theres nothing on spark notes for it.  Can I read something else instead?"

Last week a student told one of my colleagues that "My parents pay your salary."  This was an 18 year old.  I'm sure that attitude will follow him into college.

But I actually think college must have changed a lot in 10 years.  I don't think the college experience our children are having is much like our own.  I feel sorry for longtime professors; some of my favorites will still be teaching, and it makes me so sad to think of students speaking to them the way they speak to us.[/quote]

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