At the end of the school year, students go around and have their classmates sign their school yearbook. I was one of those students who also wanted teacher signatures. However, getting each one was like receiving a little paper cut. After an entire school year together, many teachers had not learned how to say nor spell my first name.

Every single year of school during K-12, I can provide an unfortunate encounter with a teacher about my name.

I have also written about this topic numerous times and made videos asking teachers to do better. Again, I find myself feeling the need to pause and remind teachers.

It is unacceptable not to learn a student’s name. There are no excuses any teacher can provide that will sway my view. Those paper cuts add up. When some teachers would laugh in front of me when I corrected them, it was like someone had poured rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide all over those paper cuts.

My name is not a laughing matter. I understand people might mispronounce or even misspell my name. The first time I give a pass and an explanation. I have said, “It is spelled S-h-a-w-n-t-a, but pronounced Shawn-TAY” or I have said, “It’s Shawnta, long a.” When that fails, I remind them of that annoying Ru Paul song. Maybe I wouldn’t dislike it if a certain boy did not choose to sit behind me on the bus ride home and sing the song over and over.

I have even been called disrespectful and rude by teachers after correcting them. How am I the rude one when they kept calling me by a name that is not my name? When teachers fail to learn students’ names, they feel invisible. It makes them feel that they are not important enough for teachers to take the time to learn their name. 

Teachers, I saw my optometrist last week. He had notes written down on how to say my name. If a person I see once a year can say my name correctly, teachers have no excuse for butchering students’ names since they see them often.

If this is you, do better. Save the excuses for your momma.