I refer to my students in class by their last names. The reason for this goes back to what I like to be called. Though early in my days as a TA I went by my first name, it never quite worked for me: I felt that many students were reluctant to be so familiar, meaning they didn't call me anything at all, which I could empathize with, for I had been the same way as an undergraduate (though I did have a class where they would say things like, "Hey, TA Steve!" which I found amusing). I also felt it had a level of informality that didn't quite suit my teaching persona. So at a certain point as a graduate student, I switched to asking my students to call me "Mr. Mollmann." (These days, "Dr. Mollmann" or "Prof. Mollmann," though many, especially freshmen, still do use "Mr.") It was also around this time that I started wearing a tie to teach most days.
But when I made this change, I remembered something an undergraduate professor of mine, Rich Erlich, would say on the first day of class. Rich would have the class as a whole decide how to refer to each other: should it be first names for students and first name for professor? Last names for students and last name for professor? He did point out that it could be first names for students and last name for professor or even last names for students and first name for professor, but that both of those would carry an imbalance: familiarity would be allowed only one way. We ended up voting, as I recall, for first name both ways.
So following a similar logic (and, I guess, drawing on my experience of all-boy Catholic school, where last names were the norm for teachers to call us, and even for us to call each other; one of my best friends still calls me "Mollmann" more than "Steve"), I tell my students that if I request respect in being addressed by my last name and title, it is only fair for me to offer the same in return, and so I use their last names. This is something they are, it must be admitted, not terrible good at sticking to, but I enjoy it.
When I was at UConn, I would discuss all this on the first day of class, and I would usually make a joke like this: "You will have cool instructors who will ask you to use their first name. 'Hey, call me Joe.' They probably teach philosophy and wear jeans. However, as you can see, I am not very cool—I am wearing a sweater vest." This would get a good laugh.
I really like wearing sweaters and sweater vests. I couldn't tell you why, except that I guess they really fit my ethos. (I made sure to defend my dissertation in a sweater vest.) At UConn I definitely always wear a sweater vest to the first day of the spring semester, and often also to the first day of the fall semester depending on the weather.
But then I moved to Florida.
I still have most of my sweater vests, but sometimes whole semesters go by where there is no day suitable for wearing one, not even in December or January. So I have been delighted at the current January, where it has been pretty consistently cool—I actually had to break out the ice scraper one morning!—allowing me to wear a sweater vest on the first day of class and resurrect my patented joke.
This week, I wore one again on Monday, and when I got home, I changed into jeans but left my button-down shirt and sweater vest on; Son One noticed when I was putting him to bed. "Why does this shirt not have any sleeves?" he asked. Aghast that at age 3 he didn't know what a sweater vest was, I explained, and then pointed out that he actually had one in his drawer. He asked to wear it to bed, but we decided school the next day was the better option:
He looked pretty snappy in it!
After he was dressed, Hayley pointed out that we actually had a baby-sized one, but I had already dressed the baby, and it was time to go. So on the next day, I dressed the baby in his—and he too was pretty cute.
Alas, we don't have a photo of that. We didn't have time to take a photo of him in the morning, and his diaper leaked at daycare, necessitating a whole new outfit.
So sweater vest week has been good fun, but it seems like if we knew what we were doing, we would have all worn them on the same day, instead of sequentially! Maybe next time...
A while back, I was thinking about calling others by their last name. I still refer to my high school friends simply by their last name as we all did in high school. But in grade school and college, it was always first name. In later years, I noticed that people that I worked with from France, always referred to each other by last name only. No first name or Mr./Mrs. (Monsiuer/Madame), before the last name. I always wondered if what i noticed in Europe and in high school had a common derivative.
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