[HPforGrownups] Names

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 98416

Shaun wrote
> Teacher to a student: Surname - *unless* the student was a specific
> charge of yours, or sometimes if they were in some sort of
> distress, in which case you might use a first name.
>>

K

I went to a normal state school in the UK (well I say normal - it was an
amalgamation of the old girls school and a boys school which had existed for
several hundred years so in some ways it wasn't strictly normal) and I would
agree with much of what Shaun said. *Except* there were differences between
the way male and female students acted and were treated. I don't have the
books to hand right now so I'm hoping someone will comment on these
observations in regards to how Hogwarts students and teachers act because I
can't for the life of me remember if there are differences or not.

In my school boys referred to each other (except close friends) by surnames
and to the girls by their first names.
Girls referred to all the other students by their first names (if you knew
them).
Teachers (especially those who had made the move from the boys school to the
new mixed school) referred to boys by their surname and girls by their first
name.

While talking amongst themselves students referred to staff by surnames only
usually but you wouldn't *dream* of doing it to a teacher (either by
referring to him/her by his/her surname or when talking to a teacher about
another teacher), it would have been extremely disrespectful and would have
been treated as such - even when referring to those teachers who *no-one*
(and I include other staff here) would say had *earned* that respect. It was
simply a matter of courtesy, no matter how useless and/or unpleasant they
were they were in a position of authority and should be treated with respect
because of it.

I've seen a lot of discussion about it being all right to disrespect Snape
because he hasn't *earned* that respect - but people in all kinds of
positions of authority get treated in a respectful manner (at least to their
faces and to other authority figures) whether they have deserved it or not
(e.g. people in authority over you at work, people in governmental or legal
positions of authority etc etc) and, for the most part, that isn't because
people are scared of what will happen if they are rude but because general
courtesy demands that you treat them with respect because of their position
even if personally you don't think they deserve it. So why do we consider
Snape to be any different? Whether or not he deserves respect is a matter
for debate, but whether Harry should treat him with respect surely isn't?


K