Did any of the teachers refer to pupils by surname only when at school? I know that some did when calling out the class register, mostly because the surname was listed before the first name in the register.
It seems like a dated sort of thing used by strict teachers, elderly ones, or senior ones - think Bronson or most pre-1985 merger Grange Hill series, and it was mostly the male teachers referring to the male pupils. Just like the penal system or the army, one assumes it is to uphold discipline and order, and tradition.
The conservativeness of surnames does go against the liberalness of first names being used - at all my my schools, first names were always used, but then again, in Infant and Junior schools, we didn't have school uniform. I believe that it is the old-school (if you excuse the pun) establishments such as grammar schools that used to do that, along with the elite High Schools and those which still had "six if the best" corporal punishment in use.
Surely they don't do it anymore unless they really get angry with a pupil, do they?
It seems like a dated sort of thing used by strict teachers, elderly ones, or senior ones - think Bronson or most pre-1985 merger Grange Hill series, and it was mostly the male teachers referring to the male pupils. Just like the penal system or the army, one assumes it is to uphold discipline and order, and tradition.
The conservativeness of surnames does go against the liberalness of first names being used - at all my my schools, first names were always used, but then again, in Infant and Junior schools, we didn't have school uniform. I believe that it is the old-school (if you excuse the pun) establishments such as grammar schools that used to do that, along with the elite High Schools and those which still had "six if the best" corporal punishment in use.
Surely they don't do it anymore unless they really get angry with a pupil, do they?
Comment