Monday, July 20, 2009

Naming Police

I was perusing the top stories on AOL earlier, and I ran across this. I just had to share.

After subbing for cough cough years, I can say that I find this to be true (although I only have anecdotal evidence to back up that assertion). The more "creative" the name, the more likely that the student is going to be a problem.

Usually, I don't talk about this too much. Since I deal with minors, I don't use real names when I name a student (all names are changed to protect the not-so-innocent). This is the Internet after all, not the teacher's lounge.

The other assertion made in the article (at the bottom, below the picture) about socio-economic factors being at play also made sense. I do notice that the AP classes have fewer "creative" names than the remedial classes do. Not that there aren't "creative" names in the more demanding classes or mainstream names in the less demanding ones. But there is a trend, and it is noticeable.

Articles like this help. The fewer "creative" names out there, the easier it will be for me to call out roll.

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