Children should be banned from calling teachers “sir” or “miss” because it discriminates against women, academics have claimed. Instead they should use teachers’ first names to make it easier for pupils to identify with them.
“It’s a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job, are given high status,” said Jennifer Coates, emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at Roehampton University.
She told the Times Educational Supplement: “Sir is a knight, but ‘miss’ is ridiculous, it doesn’t match ‘sir’ at all.”
Jacob Middleton, an education historian, said that it became acceptable for married women to work as teachers again in the mid-20th century, but the notion of females as “miss” and