Do Americans actually call teachers by their first name anywhere, or is it almost always Mr./Ms.?

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Mystic_Owl_Card44@reddit

The only time and place I have seen instructors called by their first name was at the college level. Even then, I have only had like 5 professors go by their first name (most of them have been in my PhD).

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Fancy_Elk565@reddit

For some younger grades students will call their teacher Mr./ms. First name but middle school and high school is almost exclusively by last name.

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National_Employer_11@reddit

In some schools, yes, this is normal. At most schools — no. This would really only be a thing — first names — at certain private schools. I know that Quaker schools often have teachers go by their first name. I’m a teacher and allow Mr. [LastName] and Mr. [LastInitial]. Some teachers allow, for example, “Doc” if they have a PhD. Some teachers allow a nickname.

Some teachers will allow first names, as I said, at certain schools.

Some teachers (and people in general) don’t like being called their last name and in most schools it’s their choice what to be called. In those cases calling someone something different than how they introduced themselves/what they ask you to call the is considered rude.

My MIL was an elementary school librarian with a long Polish last name that started with P - A - L. She was Mrs. Pal. Then her son (my husband) joined the Marines and became Ski.

a lot of teachers also shorten their last names.

(ex, mrs. prichards - mrs. p)

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WhatABeautifulMess@reddit

Yea kids can’t just decide to call a teacher by their first name. In some cases, especially younger kids, they might not even know their first name.

in high school the teacher could be young in 20s they might allow first name. in college grad students can call professors by first name.

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tlollz52@reddit

Depends. In college I had many professors who preferred to be called by their first name, especially once we were in higher level classes.

This. I’ve only ever had one teacher want to be called by his first name, and that was a young college professor.

This explains it really well. So the real shift happens more in university than in school.

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Tigerzombie@reddit

My husband is a physics professor. He expects students in the big intro class to call him professor or doctor Lastname. But in the upper level class, using his first name is fine.

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mrggy@reddit

Personally I never had a university professor who was ok with us calling them by their first name. It was always Professor Last Name. The students might casually call a professor just by their last name when they're not around, but generally not to their face

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cheyannepavan@reddit

The vast majority of my professors were Dr. Last Name and the few that weren't went by their first names. I've never had a professor who used the title Professor. I don't know how common that is or whether it's regional because it was the same for friends/family who went to other schools (I went to a small private liberal arts college in the Northeast).

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Skatingraccoon@reddit

I just use the title Professor since not all Professors have a doctoral degree and it's a generally respectful way of addressing someone.

Also though I've seen a few folks introduce themselves with the title. But most of my professors have not insisted that we use any title realistically

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cheyannepavan@reddit

All of my professors did have doctoral degrees and introduced themselves with the title, but a few were happy to be called by their first name.

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SeaworthinessIcy6419@reddit

It could depend on the major. I majored in Theatre and all my profs for my major we called by their first name. I remember once at a beginning of the year meeting one said as a joke, "and now Professor W will tell us about theatre etiquette." The prof in question said, "well the first rule of theatre etiquette is never call me Professor W." It always threw me when I'd be in a class with non-majors and they'd address the prof as Professor.

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TManaF2@reddit

I had one professor who preferred us to call him by a simple, non-obvious nickname - the origins of which he, a linguistics professor, explained in our first hour of class.

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brzantium@reddit

I suppose it depends on your field of study. All my professors for my core curriculum were either Dr. or Prof. LastName. But I was a fine arts major and there is no DFA (Stephen Colbert has an honorary one, but that's mostly a joke) and few of my art professors even had MFAs, so they just went by their first names.

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bdrwr@reddit

It's more standard to use Mr/Ms, but certain schools and regions have a culture of using first names, and it can even come down to the individual teacher's preference.

Going by first names is seen as more personal and less formal; you see more first name teachers on the west coast than you do in the Midwest or the south.

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Very_Veri_@reddit

I will tell you it's really weird is that teachers call each other by Mr and Mrs. School is very formal. I would have gotten trouble if I left the kids call me by my first thing or even buy a nickname. The closest should get is to say something like Mrs M, because the kids who are not native English speakers find my name hard to pronounce.

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Sea-Evidence-5523@reddit (OP)

That is actually more formal than I expected, if even teachers use Mr. and Mrs. with each other. School culture really seems to keep that boundary very strong.

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it's really up to their preference and your relationship with them. just the first name is pretty unusual, but it's really common where i live to drop the "mr./ms./mrs." and just refer to them by last name. or, if you have that teacher as a sport coach, some are "coach (first name)" but you respect it if they prefer their last name. my bowling coach didn't even go by his first name in his personal life, so naturally we used his last name.

a teacher i had once had a pretty unfortunate last name (commonly mispronounced like a slur) and requested to be called "coach (first name)" by all his students instead. not sure how common that is.

not sure if this is unique to my school but if two teachers have the same last name (married, parent and child, etc.) we'll either re-add the "mr./mrs." or say "young/old (last name)". like if there's a mr. smith in his 60s who teaches science, and his son in his 30s teaches english, they'd be "old smith" and "young smith", respectively.

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PhillyNickel1970@reddit

I've called my grade school teachers Mr./Mrs./Ms. TeacherName my entire life and I'm Facebook friends with a lot of them. Still won't call them by their first name.

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Push_the_button_Max@reddit

My dad was a popular teacher in my middle school, and when he was my teacher, we discussed beforehand what I would call him in class.

I decided on “Mr. Last Name,” just because that’s what he was to all the other students, and I didn’t want to stick out.

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ReeMayRe@reddit

Mr and Ms last name is the standard, unless it's one of those progressive charter schools where they allow first names or they have different titles, like Professor.

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Reduak@reddit

Not only do the students call teachers by their formal names (Mr. or Ms.), but teachers call EACH OTHER by formal names. It's to keep students from thinking first name basis is OK, but it creates kind of a weird culture in education.

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Parking_Champion_740@reddit

Usually just very progressive schools. Or maybe a preschool where kids would say miss Nancy or teacher Nancy

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In my experience, it depends.

In regular school up to grade 12, "Mr./Mrs. Whatever" is the norm. We had one teacher in middle school that we called Mr. K because he had a very long Greek surname that people would mispronounce if they tried to say the whole thing. Also he was the "cool teacher" and half the girls had crushes on him. To this day, if I met one of my old teachers on the street, I would still call them Mr./Mrs. Whatever, even though it would be socially acceptable to call them by their first name now. It would just feel wrong to do it.

SkyPuppy561@reddit

No. If I’d called any of my teachers by their first name, I would’ve been in trouble.

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TopperMadeline@reddit

We did with one or two college professors, but that was at their permission.

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Far-Building3569@reddit

Maybe like a gym teacher, but I never met a teacher in the public school system who would’ve tolerated that

Even the school nurses were called by their last names. When we’d talk about our teachers amongst ourselves, we’d often omit the title and just say their last name (ex. Doe gave out way too much homework!)

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elssi30@reddit

For the most part teachers here prefer Mr/Mrs/Ms, but at some schools with non-mainstream educational philosophies (read: hippie schools) it’s standard to refer to teachers by first names. Some teachers will introduce themselves with first names even at typical schools.

I think what you’re referring to is more a phenomenon where a certain group of students, often goofballs and mild troublemakers, will come back to their old classroom and say hi to their teacher by saying first name or another nickname. It’s a little disrespectful, but not usually in a way that’s minded too much by the teacher. Sometimes they’ll joke around with the former students about it.

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LunaTheNightmare@reddit

Its usually mr/miss/whatever tho occasionally when a teacher was cool we'd call them just by their last name

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Kbbbbbut@reddit

In preschool it’s actually usually Mr./Ms.first name for some reason.

In grade school it is always Mr./Ms. last name or last initial if they have a tricky name.

Khpatton@reddit

I’m a teacher and even though my students can be disrespectful at times, I’ve never had one address me by my first name. I had to ask a student to bring me something from my desk one time because my hands were full and I had to reassure her several times that she was allowed to because she felt even that would be disrespectful.

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Impurest_Vessel@reddit

Depends. In elementary school, you weren't permitted to, and students would look them up on the school website to learn their first names (to call them that and make them mad), but saying first names was an automatic detention. In high school, one of our teachers was literally like "Mr. Christoper" and our headmistress was like "Mrs. Jane".

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RuckFeddit980@reddit

It has become a lot more common in recent years for teachers to go by Mr./Ms. (First Name) - but not just (First Name)

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BouncingSphinx@reddit

Most of the time, it's either Mr./Mrs. Lastname, or Coach Lastname.

More often than other teachers, a coach might go by Coach Firstname.

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Baymavision@reddit

I grew up in the northeast and all teachers were Mr/Mrs/Ms. Last name. Some of my kids teachers in the DC area go by Mr/etc. Firstname but that's by their choice.

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zephyrus4600@reddit

It’s been 30 years since I graduated high school. I still call my Latin teacher “Mr.” when I see him. I respect him highly.

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LongInfinite1837@reddit

When I was in high school we called our teachers by their first names. There was a single teacher that wanted to be called Dr Smith.

It is not common and I went to a very small charter school.

It's common for teachers to either be Mr / Mrs first name or last name.

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nctm96@reddit

It’s pretty uncommon. In high school we often called teachers by their last name only, or a nickname version of their last name- but only if they were cool and didn’t mind. For example- Ms. Flanagan was Flan. Mr. Dellachai was Dell. We had married teachers idek what their fully last name was but we shortened it to “Fry”. It was kind of a badge of honor to be called by your last name, like the kids had dubbed you cool and accepted you lol. But there were some we called by the full title too. But never the first name.

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Roddy117@reddit

College, I think all my teachers wanted to be referred to by their first name. In high school and lower it was always Mr/ Mrs, even when I see my teachers now once in the bluest of moons I still refer to them as Mr/ Mrs.

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astrologicaldreams@reddit

uh, no. most teachers are called mr./ms./mrs.

My students would NEVER call me by my first name. I've been teaching long enough that some are my colleagues now. I am still Mrs. Barracuda even when I tell them to call me otherwise.

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ShakeWeightMyDick@reddit

I’m not sure how it’s done today, but when I was a student at a Montessori school in the 1970s, we called our teachers by their first names.

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Desert_Kat@reddit

At college I referred to the professors in my department by their first name. It was a small program with around 80 undergrads in a university of 25,000.

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Aggravating-House620@reddit

Public school: always last name Private school: often first name, but not always

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Reddittoxin@reddit

I used to teach, it's extremely rare and kinda frowed upon, and administrators are the ones upholding that. Like, in most of the districts i taught in, we teachers would also get in trouble if we got caught letting students call us by 1st names. Mr/ms, or "coach" (If you were one of the coaches of the sports teams on campus) last name were the only acceptable ways to address teachers.

I remember when I was student teaching one of my classmates had this problem lol. He had volunteered for the school for years prior with the sports teams, so he already knew most of the students in that small school. Bc he wasn't an actual employee of the school, just a volunteer, they didn't care if the kids called him by first name then.

However, once he was hired on as a student teacher, they told him he had to start correcting students and demand to be "Mr. Smith" lol. So he was telling us how he spent a lot of his day going "not my name" and retraining the kids to call him by his last name lol.

Sometimes it's kinda preformative, but I remember my professor saying something that made it make sense. He said those kinds of policies are for the new teachers more than the older ones, bc when we get our licenses and start our careers, we're not that much terribly older than our students. We could be teaching 17-18 year old high school seniors as 23-24 year Olds. We dont visibly look that much different from those kids lol.

304libco@reddit

It’s crazy. I’d actually never heard of the Miss/Mr/1st name thing until I moved to West Virginia and then it was only like after school program leaders or Sunday school teachers and I’ve also never heard of calling a teacher by only the last name without an honorific. I have had college professors that I called by their first name, but not during class

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Conscious-Science-60@reddit

So I’m a teacher in California and there are many schools where teachers go by their first name. My observation is that it’s more common at charter and independent schools. Plenty of schools still use last names though, it just depends on the school.

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serendipitypug@reddit

I’ve worked in schools where it’s unheard of to use first names (except for paras) and now I work at a school where it’s just up to the individual teacher. I’ve worked with multiple who drop the Mr./Ms. altogether and just use first names. Here is why I like it:

Easier for our queer staff members. They aren’t the only ones who aren’t using traditional teacher names.
Honors personal preference.
It’s ironic that we think it’s disrespectful for kids to call us by our first name on principle but that paraeducators were always called by their first name and that’s fine. Make it make sense.

In school, it was considered disrespectful to use our teacher's first names. Iand even if the teacher was ok with it, I know my county had a policy against letting students use first names.

In college there wasn't a rule like that. We still use honorifics for most of the teachers, but occasionally there was a professor who started the year out by telling us to use their given name.

Teachers outside of formal schooling, like a class at a recreational center, or a tutor tend to just go by their first names, depending on their age and the ages of most of their students. For example a swimming teacher instructing small children might be called "Miss Katie," by her students, and "Katie" when teaching teenagers or adults. A dance instructor teaching exclusively adults will probably just go by their first name.

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ParticularYak4401@reddit

In a lot of daycare/preschool classes the kids call their teachers miss. First name. By elementary school you are calling your teacher by their prefix and last name. Heck I even called my Sunday school teachers until middle school Mr/mrs. T

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FionaOlwen@reddit

I called all my teachers by first name, but I went to smaller weird schools…

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Little_Duck90@reddit

So, it depends on the age. Most of the time, daycare teachers get called Mr./Ms. First Name, since the children are small and often, last names are more difficult to pronounce. However, once they reach elementary school or higher, it's always Mr./Ms. Last Name.

To call a teacher by their first name is often considered extremely rude, because, as an adult, they should be addressed with respect.

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Oomlotte99@reddit

Mostly Mr/Ms and Dr/Professor unless they ask for something else.

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Dizzy_Lengthiness_92@reddit

The town next to where I went to school the high school students called teachers by their first name and that’s the only school I’ve ever heard that bring a thing

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CultofEight27@reddit

I went to an alternative high school where we called teachers by first names, but most schools it’s Mr/Ms or for principals sometimes Dr.

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HermioneMarch@reddit

Little kids might say miss first name, but not without the honorific.

It’s pretty much based up to the teacher.

Some are chill about it and some aren’t

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Sea-Evidence-5523@reddit (OP)

Interesting, so it sounds like there is a rule but also some teacher-by-teacher flexibility.

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itmightbehere@reddit

I've been out of school for 10+ years so things may have changed, but general rule for very young children is Miss/Mrs/Mr First name, then as they get older they're taught to "be respectful" by using their last name instead of first along with the title, and you'll keep using that for almost all teachers through graduating highschool (at 18).

Some teachers are much less formal and allow first names - these teachers are either the best or worst you'll have, in my experience. (Best treat you like PEOPLE, which is why they allow first names. Worst don't have boundaries. )

In college, it's best to ask. You're learning from so many kinds of instructors that they'll all have different titles and expectations. I had some who preferred Professor, some Doctor, some Miss/Mr/Mrs, some first name.

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Sea-Evidence-5523@reddit (OP)

That progression by age is really interesting. So it is not random casualness, it is more like schools slowly decide how much formality to keep as students grow.

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whuaminow@reddit

As you level up academically you become closer and closer to being a peer, rather than an underling. At some point if you achieve a doctorate degree, when you see one of your old professors it can be awkward not to call them Dr. Lastname, because to you that's what their name is! I had a peer at my University that went on elsewhere to get his PhD, but came back to a professorship at our original school. He told me how difficult it was to call people he had as professors by their first names for several months. Occasional slip ups happend for a year or more.

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Is it a weird take? I like how you remove all context from the situation. Like an adult authority figure asking for more familiarity from a child they are not related to is weird, to me.

I’m guessing that was how they chose to introduce themselves and it was always preceded with Mr/Ms/Mrs?

Ok-Office6837@reddit

I agree

At my high school, we called a lot of teachers by just their last name or a nickname involving their last name, dropping the Ms/Mr. I can’t think of anyone we actually called by their first name unless it was in a jokey way.

At my college we kinda did the same. There were only a few teachers we used “Dr” for, and also a few teachers who wanted to be called by their first name.

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Sea-Evidence-5523@reddit (OP)

Interesting, so it really is much rarer in normal school life than the media makes it seem.

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msabeln@reddit

I work at a public school. The naming convention is somewhat complicated:

Teachers are called by students as Ms./Mrs./Mr. lastname.
Teachers use only last names with each other.
The Coach is always called Coach.
The maintenance man is called by his first name.
The security officer is always called Officer firstname.
Non-teaching staff are called Mrs./Ms. firstname.
I am either called Sir or Mr. first initial of last name.
I refer to everyone by their first name unless students are around.

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Enough-Secretary-996@reddit

The only time I ever did call a teacher by their first name was my elementary school computer teacher (by her preference, understandable since I imagine little kids would have trouble pronouncing her last name) and one of my high school English teachers (and that was only because she was my cousin and I had already known her by her first name my whole life).

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SailorKronos@reddit

Where I am (Northeast) a lot of schools in more liberal areas do first names with teachers

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squidtheinky@reddit

Only in college with permission from the professors. Some of my professors preferred to be called by their first names and they would let the class know on the first day.

No, not in my experience.

What I thought was kinda weird when I became a parent of school-aged kids is that parents are ALSO expected to call teachers Mr./Ms. So and So.

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turnerevelyn@reddit

Montessori school for my grandchildren pre-k through 8th used first names.

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Smolmanth@reddit

As a teacher I have had to write up several disciplinary reports for kids using my first name. There is no situation in education (excluding post-secondary) where it acceptable to call a teacher by their first name. This is instilled in students from the beginning of primary school.

The US is vast and diverse, therefore few honorifics (such as those in Japan for those who are elder) are standard practice everywhere, except when it comes to education. Preschooler and some places in the south might use mr./ms. First name, but I have not heard of it being practiced elsewhere.

Public schools universally use last names and Mr/Ms/Mrs.

Private schools have more variety. Progressive private schools often use first names.

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Remote_Pick_1952@reddit

I'm 68 and I don't think I've ever called a teacher by their first name. Even my college professors were addressed by a title and their last name.

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cats-n-cafe@reddit

I married the son of one of my college professors and 20 years later, I still have a hard time not calling him Professor …..

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I feel like this was more common, but still not that common, in the 60's and 70's.

I had an elementary school teacher who had us call him by his first name, I think he was a student teacher.

Almost exclusively Mr. Ms. and when the person prefers it, Mrs.

Only teachers i called by first name were nuns so it was Sister XYZ. But even as a 40 yo when I communicate to former teachers theyre still Ms. ABC, and as PTA president I still only call my kids teachers Ms. Mr. Dr. Etc

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Maiace124@reddit

I've never called a lower level teacher by their first name with the exception of Ms. Jessica and she still had the Ms. (Lower level being through high school). Some college professors are okay with it because they see us and treat us as future colleagues. I'd say maybe 1/3 of my college professors are like that.

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ButterscotchOdd8257@reddit

It is very rare for students to call teachers or professors by first names.
Here's a funny video of students breaking that rule and showing the teachers' reactions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nNTrU_DJEQ

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

Yes! I went to a public elementary school in San Francisco where we called everyone, from the lunch ladies to the principal, by their first names. I remember reading books where people used the terms "Mr" and "Mrs" and being unsure of how to pronounce them because I had never heard them. (Obviously I knew what Mister was, because I'd seem Mister Rodgers, but I was unclear on "Mr". I think I thought it was pronounced "mur".)

When I was still a kid, my family moved to the suburbs and I changed schools. We had to address teachers with honorifics and I found it so weird. it seemed very old-fashioned to me as a child.

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Jdawn82@reddit

In primary and secondary, it’s pretty much always last name. At university level, it depends on the professor. Many are casual, but there are also just as many who subscribe to “I earned the Dr. title, you will refer to me that way.” I went to a small college. Most of the professors I personally had went by first name with the exception of my Piano Proficiency professor, all of the science professors, a few of the Bible professors (though I called my mom’s cousin by his first name anyway and he hated it), and a couple of professors who taught my parents 30 years prior.

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Charlesinrichmond@reddit

first name would be very rare

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SherLovesCats@reddit

When I was a university lecturer, we taught smaller classes. In these classes, students worked together on small discussion points, activities, and peer review. I allowed my students to use my first name.

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tarheel_204@reddit

You’re expected to call them Mr, Mrs, Ms, etc. It was always disrespectful to call them by their first name

Electronic_Syrup7592@reddit

I’m a professor and I definitely want to be called by my first name, as have most of my professors.

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I am seeing that even in more relaxed settings, many teachers still prefer that professional boundary.

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sunfish99@reddit

I've found that it depends on a couple of things. Young professors may keep the title + last name because they need to reinforce with undergrads that they aren't on the same level. Women of any age may stick with the title + last name because there can be a lack of respect granted to women otherwise, particularly by male undergrads.

K-12 public schools tend to be Mr./Mrs. In college, all of my adjunct professors had me call them by their first name and the faculty professors had me call them by their title. In classes I've interpreted for at other colleges it's been a mixed bag.

Ask_Aspie_@reddit

Preschool, special ed, and kindergarten students can usually call teachers by their first names. But like as Mr. John or Mrs. Mary.

Some professors in college will let you call them by their first names, without the Mr. or Mrs., but that isn't really common.

Everyone else calls their teachers Mr. Last Name, Mrs. Last name, Dr. Last Name and so forth.

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the-magician-misphet@reddit

If you were close with a teacher you might call them by their first name as a joke. Our music teacher in high school had the first name Elon (before that tech billionaire ruined it) so he used to get called E-Money as a term of endearment- we also were a majority black school.

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diaznuts@reddit

As far as K-12 (primary school) goes, it’s extremely uncommon for students to call teachers by their first names. However, once in college/university it becomes less uncommon, though most refer to their professors by calling them “Doctor/Professor Smith,” as an example.

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No_Satisfaction_7431@reddit

No its usually rude to call a teacher by their first name. However some teachers don't like being called by their last name or in elementary school they feel it may seem too formal/not approachable by kids so some teachers go by Ms./Mrs./Mr. First name but rarely just by their first name.

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GrimSpirit42@reddit

Teachers are ALWAYS Mr. or Mrs.

My wife is a Nursing Instructor. All her students call her 'Mrs. Spirit'.

She, in turn, calls every single one of those students 'Mrs. Smith' or 'Mr. Jones'. No exception.

But, the first time she sees them AFTER they've graduated and passed their NCLEX to become licensed nurses....she will great them with their first name. And she asks that they call her by her first name.

Why? Because they are now peers.

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Thyrach@reddit

Some of my schools there were students who just called the teachers “Miss” - which at least some of the teachers saw as disrespectful but there really wasn’t a way to fix that.

I know some teachers with more difficult names would choose a nickname or ask to be called “Ms. Susan” instead of “Mrs. Tchaikovsky”, depending on the age and capabilities of their regular students.

All my personal teachers introduced themselves as Mrs/Mr (or Coach) LastName until college, where most of them were Dr.

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reaper2161@reddit

In my experience it’s super regional. In northwest Tennessee, our teachers introduced themselves by their first name and preferred to be addressed that way. In northern Georgia and North Carolina, teachers go by their last name unless you’re more familiar with them (we called our drama teacher by his first name, but math teachers by last). It very much depends on the school itself, but more often than not it will be “Mr/Ms/Mrs/Mx Last Name”

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XayahTheVastaya@reddit

Only at the 20 person total farm school I went to for a few years

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Boston_Brand1967@reddit

Teacher here. As many others have said, the normal is to say Mr./Ms/Mrs. XYZ. I know of SOME folks who are moving to use Mr. FIRST NAME...I went to a summer stop motion film camp to help teach and the team decided to use our first name, which seemed off to me.

In College, I called all my professors Mr/Ms/Mrs/Dr.

sluttypidge@reddit

This was actually an interesting problem at the school my mother/sister teach at.

Obviously, my sister same last name as she is unmarried.

My sister and the teacher she works with have a similar last and first name.

Preschool teachers are all Miss/Ms and never Mrs.

Open-Neighborhood459@reddit

Lol so you can't call them ms. But can call them by their first name.

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RaeWineLover@reddit

It's common for preschool where I live, usually Miss First Name.

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Open-Neighborhood459@reddit

Interesting never heard of that. Always by last name. Just a respect thing.

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mayonnaisejane@reddit

At my kid's preschool they're ALL Ms/Mr firstname. Except the cook. She's just firstname.

In college Inhad a professor that insisted on being called hy jis first name. But thats college, very different dynamic

In gradeschool, everyone is 'Mr', 'Ms', or 'Mrs'

My kids went to a K-8 school in MN where teachers and admin staff go by their 1st names. It started 13 or more years ago when the principal decided they wanted to do that, and it continued with subsequent principals. It's not a whole district thing; there are half dozen more schools and none do that.

In elementary school it is common to call a teacher by their first name combined with the proper honorific. So Miss Hayley, for example. But this is mostly limited to Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First or Second Grade. By third Grade most kids have transitioned to honorific plus last name.

From that point onward through college you will use Honorific plus last name unless specifically instructed to do otherwise. I had a college choral director who went by Doctor First Name because he did not like sounding stodgy when he earned his doctorate but we as students refused to not use the honorific of his recent achievement.

In High School, a lot of teachers would be called by Mr. or Ms. "Firstname." That seems more familiar but still acknowledges a hierarchical distinction. A formal Mr. or Ms. Lastname is still the norm. I knew a few teachers who were Firstname Lastname to everyone, staff or students alike; I couldn't tell you the reason but maybe this is a Quaker norm that has spilled over.

Pretty much always Mr./Ms./Mrs.

I had a teacher that we called by only his last name in high school. He hated it.

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In preschool and maybe college if you have a cool professor. In elementary through high school, basically never.

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This-Reindeer6063@reddit

Almost always Mr/Ms

But there are definitely places where their first name is used. Some schools have a policy where they cannot ask students to call them by their first name, some it would be up to the teacher.

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When I was in public school it was only Ms/Mr Last Name. When I switched to a private Quaker school in high school we called all the teachers and staff by their first names, which is more in line with the Quaker philosophy of equality. I think that's pretty uncommon though and mostly only happens at alternative type schools.

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beardiac@reddit

In American high schools, both through my own exposure and being married to a teacher now, I've never known of a teacher at that level who would go by their first name with students. It's very uncommon and I think is generally considered a path to undermining authority if taken.

College is a different story, though. While you're likely to still call your intro-level professors Mr. Smith or Mrs. Jones, etc., you're more likely to at least be aware of your teacher's first names, and as you get closer and past the graduate level many professors drop that formality in favor of preferred names as they will have more familiar relationships with the students in their programs. E.g., my wife when taking earth science related courses for her BS in secondary education had several professors who were simply known as Steve, Maria, Gill, etc. By that point you've taken multiple classes with these professors and have a more interactive and collaborative relationship with them.

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qu33nof5pad35@reddit

The only time I’ve ever called a college professor by their first name was someone who was like 5-7 years older than me. All the other times, it’s been Ms/Mr or Professor.

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CornucopiaDM1@reddit

I think it is rarest to call them by ONLY their first name, but in elementary school, or some southern areas, it is common to have the honorific preceding it.

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nis_sound@reddit

Not in school. But places like daycares and such, it is.

I can't think of a teacher I called by their first name, but I had a couple who were "Mr. D" or "Ms. S" because their last names were hard to pronounce, but even then, the letter was the first letter of their last name.

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CraftyFraggle@reddit

We used our teachers first names at my private elementary school in the 1980’s.

And then in college it was probably about 50/50.

WildlifePolicyChick@reddit

Yes, we use honorifics. Very rarely would you use a teacher's first name, and that would be after you are out of school and at their invitation.

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MotherOf4Jedi1Sith@reddit

Very uncommon. I'm sure it happens, but I've never called any of my teachers by their first name (even after graduating, I still called them Mr./Mrs.), nor have my children.

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Forest_Lincoln@reddit

The closest to that casual that I’ve gotten was referring to them by solely their last name, no honorifics. But I was a teacher’s assistant, so more subordinate than student.

Unless I was given direct instruction to use their first name, it’d feel improper to not use their last name. It would still feel improper even after permission anyway, and it would still be Ms/Mr First Name. The only semi-exception was nicknames.

When I was a kid, it was near a sin to even ask for the teacher’s first name, much less to call them by it

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Quix66@reddit

No. Students do not call their teachers by their first names.

Depends on the school culture. In elementary and high school it was Ms. and Mr. for all teachers. At the school where I went to undergrad, it was generally professor, sometimes doctor (for the PhD's who were also feeling pretentious), and occasionally first names. At grad school, it was all first names.

Not if all their students do the same.

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Complex_Committee_25@reddit

Dangerous indeed. Hahaha

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FunTricky903@reddit

>Dangerous

That's a little dramatic.

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misagale@reddit

Even if it’s first name, it’s Ms/Mr. First Name.

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calicoskiies@reddit

Very uncommon. I’ve somehow made it all the way to grad school and have only had one teacher asked to be called by their first name.

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ChipsAhoyMccoy14@reddit

There were a few teachers that I called by their first name in college but everybody else was by their last name.