The Wisconsin English teacher, Jordan Cernek, argues in the suit that the district violated his freedom of religion and free speech in mandating the use of the students’ preferred names and pronouns.
A high school English teacher is suing a Wisconsin school district, alleging it did not renew his contract last year because he refused to use the preferred names of two transgender students.
Jordan Cernek’s federal lawsuit alleges the Argyle School District violated his constitutional and civil rights to be free of religious discrimination and to be able to express himself according to his religious beliefs when it did not renew his contract because he refused to abide by a requirement that teachers use the names or pronouns requested by students.
As an employee of the school, the only names he should be using are those registered in its official documents. Personal desires should not matter for either side.
Every teacher I ever had in public school throughout the 90s and early 00s asked students to tell them if they had a nickname or a name they preferred to be called on the first day of class. And then they would do their best to adhere to it.
Every single one. Nobody gave a shit. There were more important things going on like, I dunno, educating children?
Most of my teachers in the schools i went to never used a nickname for their students. Those that used nicknames were the exception, not the rule. And guess what happened to them. Parents complained of favouritism and the grades they gave were questioned.
Every single time. People do give a shit about the non-educating part and it’s an issue schools have to deal with when they’d rather not.
Every teacher, instructor, professor I’ve had from kindergarten through graduate school across three states and as many decades has asked every class I’ve been in if a student has a preferred name over the name they’re officially registered with. Every one made a note in their register to call them as such. Refusing to call a student by their preferred name is a new level of pettiness at best and discrimination at worst. A teacher’s job is to make their classroom a place where children feel welcome and safe. Regardless of whatever their personal views are. So, I say with all sincerity and with no irony, fuck your feelings.
And guess what happened to them. Parents complained of favouritism and the grades they gave were questioned.
Was this in the educational institutions of North Korea?
Are you an annoying PTA parent that tried to ban Harry Potter? That would explain so much
Are you telling me that if a kid named Timmy wants me to call him Tim, I should only be calling him Timmy? Fuck that noise.
If you’re the teacher of a classroom and it’s not part of your contract to call Timmy as Tim, then little Timmy can go legally change his name to Tim.
Do you realize how disconnected from reality you sound? Kids’ legal names aren’t as important as you think they are. Honestly, neither are adults’ legal names.
If someone comes up to you (outside of a school) and says their name is Will, do you say you’re only going to call them William? If yes, wow, you are so weird. If not, why does it matter inside of a school and not outside?
then little Timmy can go legally change his name to Tim.
How I ‘legally changed’ my name:
-
I told everyone that knew me by my old name what my new name was.
-
This involved sending letters to places of business I had an account with, e.g. bank and utilities.
Do you have to do that for a nickname?
- No.
So, if Timmy says “I prefer Tim”, is that going against a ‘contract’? Doesn’t seem so.
Im so glad you have insight on this. You see, I get a lot of international students in my class and I’ve had to deal with this type of thing a lot. Maybe you can help me out.
Let’s say I have a polish student whose name is “Żółć”, which is somewhat difficult to pronounce in English. After a few failed attempts, he just tells me he prefers “George” because it sounds close enough, he likes that it sounds like English, and is easier for everyone to pronounce. His English-speaking friends call him George as well.
Do I…
- Go on and call him George since he prefers it, everybody knows him as that, and move on with the lesson?
- Call his parents to request that they have his name legally changed to George so I can use it in the classroom, then butcher his actual name in front of his friends until they do?
- Assign him a nick name (not a pet name, because that might be a little weird) “Polish kid” or “Student number 8” so I can call him something easy, be technically correct, and disregard his preferred, yet technically incorrect name?
I could really use some help with this since it happens all the time. Please let me know what you think.
Uh no. Not that hard to call a person by the name they prefer. Don’t be a bigot.
Bigotry has nothing to do with it. The name registered is the one that should be used. If your registered name with the school is Richard, but you wanna be called Private Dick, then register it. If you can’t, then that’s another issue entirely.
The name registered is the one that should be used.
Hi, I’m a teacher.
The names I use are the ones that make the students comfortable. Trans student with parents who don’t accept it? Student is more important.
If I change your name in the school system to “Cunty McNonce” - and, obviously, I have access - would it be okay to use that name? After all, that’s the record of official documents that the school uses to confirm a name.
What you’re actually saying is that the personal desires of parents to control their children are more important than anything else. In human society, there’s generally some level of personal desire getting in the way: eliding that is a means to pretend that those who have power are more ethical than they really are.
I’m sure he would have no problem calling a, let’s just say, James David JD if that is what James David preferred. This is just bigotry for the sake of hate
I’d rather they didn’t. As an official, fraternizing individually only creates problems overall. A teacher should teach a class objectively.
However, any other extracurricular activities should be separate from regular classes and the relationship is more tight knit, so in that circumstance, nicknames wouldn’t be an issue.
Ir you don’t separate work from personal life, you’re going to have a bad time.
As a fucking educator, you should be connecting to every single student in your classroom on a personal level, or you’re unredeemably shit at your job.
A good chunk of a teacher’s job is to build appropriate relationships with your students. Students don’t want to learn from someone they dislike, and you have significantly better learning outcomes when the students feel safe, accepted, and cared about. Appropriate nicknames, like Tim for Timothy, help in that relationship building. I don’t know what your position is at that school, but Wisconsin teachers are literally taught stuff like this in college so that we know how to manage a classroom with the best learning outcomes and the fewest number of behavioral disruptions. We are taught how to keep those relationships appropriate and healthy, although much of that is just common sense.
Yes, you should separate work and home life for both your own sanity and for modeling good boundaries and work-life balance. But that doesn’t mean you have to drop your decency at the door. At the end of the day, the goal is learning, and not being a douche is one of the easiest ways to get to that goal.
Extracurricular activities are an extension of these same principles, not an exception or something with a different set of standards. I think you might be mixing up appropriate relationship building with inappropriate fraternizing, and I’m concerned that you are having difficulty finding that line.
What is your government name so I don’t accidentally call you the wrong thing?
As an official, fraternizing individually only creates problems overall.
You appear to be imagining that using a nickname will turn into sleepovers at some point.
Just invent robots to teach children. Then they can be ‘objective’ in exactly the way you prefer, as you can train them up from the facts as you see them… without you realising that your ‘objectivity’ is in fact a personal preference.
Hi, I’m a teacher.
The names I use are the ones that make the students comfortable. Trans student with parents who don’t accept it? Student is more important.
If I change your name in the school system to “Cunty McNonce” - and, obviously, I have access - would it be okay to use that name? After all, that’s the record of official documents that the school uses to confirm a name.
What you’re actually saying is that the personal desires of parents to control their children are more important than anything else. In human society, there’s generally some level of personal desire getting in the way: eliding that is a means to pretend that those who have power are more ethical than they really are.
Good for you, but that is your choice.
If you changed my name illegally, that’s how it will be treated.
What I’m saying is that legal names are legal for a reason. If you don’t like your legal name, change it. If you can’t, well, that’s a whole nother problem.
Your imagination is wild.
What I’m saying is that legal names are legal for a reason. If you don’t like your legal name, change it. If you can’t, well, that’s a whole nother problem.
Can a child do that yet? If no, expecting them to do so denies them freedom of identity and expression. Abusing children used to be ‘legal’. People disagreed, even though it was ‘legal’. It was made more and more ‘illegal’. In Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development, I seem to be at the post-conventional stage (reasoning based on personal ethics) when responding to tasks designed to identify these stages. Where are you in those stages? Your strict adherence to legal records over human expression seems to give a clue.
Your imagination is wild.
Your lack of imagination is boring, and leads you to think and express yourself in a mechanical, anti-human way.
Good for you, but that is your choice.
It’s actually policy at my institution. When students have preferred names, they are recorded. Teachers are asked to us them, and if they make the child upset by not using them repeatedly they get in trouble. If the child does not want the parents to know about their name change, they are not told. This protects trans students.
You make a lot of wrong assumptions.
Bigotry doesn’t make an exception wether it is showcased in an official capacity/private or personal capacity. As you demonstrated with your comment.
You believe in objective morality, don’t you?
