The Importance of Being Mister?

Names are important. In the classroom I feel that it is important for students to refer to their teachers as Mr. or Mrs. So and So. I don’t feel that it is appropriate in any k12 setting for any student to use any teacher or administrators first names. There needs to be professional distance between student and teacher. It is equally important for teachers to quickly remember and regularly use the names of their students. The use of a student’s name in the classroom is a validation that recognizes that they exist, that they are unique, and they are important.

Almost no one calls me by my first name, Kevin; and even then it’s a shorter version like Kev, and sometimes Kevo. My dear mother who named me doesn’t call me Kevin because that’s not the name she picked out for me. My mother named me K.C. up until my (paternal) grandmother came to see me in the hospital and asked what my parents had named their first-born. My grandmother’s famous response was, “K.C.? Sound like the name for a dog.” So K.C. became Kevin Christian. However, most people who know me professionally, including my students, call me Bibo.

Leaving off the “Mr.” part used to bother me. But then I came to accept my namesake and go with it. Some students call me “Mr. Bibo” in class, but those are usually the newer, younger students with whom I have not yet made any sort of connection. About midway through the school year, and from that point on, the majority of high school students I teach refer to me simply as Bibo. And it’s not just them. My colleagues also refer to me as Bibo. That could have something to do with there being four other Kevins on campus.

I could be offended at this lack of formality. For me, the use of my last name alone has become endearing. Bibo is a very uncommon name after all (how many Bibos do you know?) One Bibo was actually a Governor at Acoma Pubelo in New Mexico during the late 1800’s. My sister and I recently ran into another Bibo working at a local restaurant. Just today a student shared with me that Bibos means an Asian wild ox. So as long as I feel respected by my students as the authority figure in the classroom, I don’t really mind.

So long as your students respect you as their teacher dropping the Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. can be acceptable. However, I still would not allow my students to use my first name because I feel that it crosses a line of professional distance that the kids themselves want to keep in place. Many adults will continue to refer to their childhood teachers as Mr. or Mrs. well into their adult lives. I have written under a pseudonym (Cal Teacher Blogger) for five years, but no more. From this point on it’s Mr. Bibo (but you can call me Bibo.)