You Never Even Called Me by My Name

This is the title of a song I like a lot by David Allen Coe. He has some that are truly awful, not musically but in content. I probably shouldn't even give him a spot here, but I will anyway because it suits my topic -- or rather, it suits the reverse of my topic.

I've never been one of those super-hip college teachers who insist their students call them by first name. In fact, I don't like it. It isn't that I consider myself to be above my students, but I do feel that use of my last name, prefaced with either Ms. or Professor, connotes a certain level of respect and distance that I find appropriate. Once they are no longer my students, I invite them to call me by my name; until then, it bothers me. I currently have a student who insists on calling me by my first name. He is older than the other students in the class but I'm pretty sure he's not my age. He is otherwise respectful, so I've let it slide. I could force the issue and risk his shutting down in class, but to me that's worst than dealing with the first name business. I'm not sure why it bothers me. Is it an ego thing? Maybe, but I don't think so.

When I started teaching college classes, I was about thirty-two and looked younger (I think). I dressed very professionally and never entertained the idea of my students calling me by my first name. I was their instructor, not their buddy. I suppose that attitude, or philosophy is perhaps the better term, stuck with me over the years. Certainly, I have had students call me worse things; one insisted on calling me "Professoress", which pissed me off more than it should have. (Said student was not a problem for long; he dropped the class only a few weeks in.) In the current situation, the other students haven't seemed to notice, so I'm not inclined to draw attention to it. However, it does strike me as especially odd, now that I think about it, in an environment where everyone is called by last name only. Maybe, in a weird way, he thinks it is more polite to call me by my name. Yeah, I'm gonna go with that.