<p>Is this a new generation thing? I was never on a first name basis with my professors or any of my bosses for that matter. Perhaps I’m old fashion. :-? </p>
<p>It depends on the culture of the school and the professor’s own attitude. When I was at Vassar in the 80s, a lot of professors encouraged us to call them by first name. Where I teach now, the same. I personally let kids call me what they’re most comfortable with. Usually its Professor LastName. Sometimes its my first name. Often it’s just LastName, which is also how the colleagues I’m closest to address me.</p>
<p>My kids seem to use last names because that is how their professors introduce themselves. Although one of my kids is on a first name basis with one of the deans at her college. OP, not sure what industry you work/worked in… I work as a consultant/contract worker and have worked at maybe 20 companies in my 30 year career. I have NEVER been in an environment where all co-workers and bosses weren’t on a first name basis. So in that case I think your thoughts are unusual or “old fashioned” as you put it.</p>
<p>A lot of my professors requested that we call them by their first name. I didn’t really get comfortable with calling my “elders” by their first name until I started working after college and had to since that’s what the company expects. My boss, who is a company VP in a pretty stiff company, laughed at me when I tried to call him Mr. Lastname. I usually just called all of my professors “professor.”</p>
<p>I called nearly all my undergrad professors “Professor LastName”, the exception being some of my studio art profs, at least one of whom was officially a “Lecturer”. In grad school, I called nearly all of them by their first names. DH teaches at a med school, and most of his students seem to call him “Dr. LastName”. (He’s a PhD doc, btw, not a med doc. He thinks they call him by his first name, but I’ve never heard them!) In real life I think I called all my American Bosses by their first names. I would never ever have called my German boss anything but “Herr LastName” and my husband called his boss “Herr Professor Doktor LastName”.</p>
<p>Growing up, I usually addressed elders by their first names so that’s what I’m used to.
In undergrad, most of my classes had 20 students or less and the professors almost universally wanted us to call them by their first names, so we did.
In grad school, our professors really emphasize the fact that they’re our “colleagues” and insist on us calling us by whatever is comfortable (for most, first names).
Every boss I’ve ever worked under has been on a first name basis except a boss of a boss who insisted that the women call him Dr. X (PhD doctor)… the men could call him by his first name (I didn’t work there very long after he came into power.)</p>
<p>I’ve recently re-enrolled in a grad program where I’ve been on a first-name basis with all of the professors for the past few years as a former student of the program and fellow member of a professional organization. I’m still not clear as to how to address them now that I’m their student again. Do I address them as Dr. X and Dr. Z in a class discussion on BlackBoard, but as “Joe” and “Debbie” in private conversation?</p>
<p>Even back in my college days, we called some professors by their first names. During my general studies in large lecture halls, it was Dr. or Mr. last name but in Occupational Therapy school, we were a small group of students with a small group of professors who we had many times over the course of the two years. It was a different relationship there- much more personal. They frequently had study sessions and celebratory receptions at their homes and we had met their families. VERY different! </p>
<p>Interestingly, now that I’m in grad school and was recruited by a professor into my current job, I tend to go with what they use. If they sign emails with their first names, then I use their first names. If they sign first and last, then I use Mr. ___ (none are PhD.s). I now work with two of my former professors. It would have been weird if I was in their classes while working with them!</p>
<p>I think that many college teachers are not professors (TAs, Grad students, PHD candidates, etc.) and these teachers may be younger and feel that their students are more their colleagues and therefore asked to be addressed by their first names. Thus far, my daughter (Sophomore) has called all her teachers “professor” last name.</p>
<p>As far as I know, first name basis, no grad students involved, but the sciences seem to be more informal as even at Ds traditional high school, science teachers went by an abbreviation of their last name or Ms. Alice, rather than Mr last name.</p>
<p>This reminds me of a situation my D1 found herself in. She got a great internship teaching middle school students in a summer academic program between her junior and senior year of high school. There were “real” high school teachers who were mentors in the program to the student teachers. So she was told to use a first name basis with everyone working in the summer program. This included her physics teacher for the next year of high school – so she spent the summer calling him “Mark” and then had to switch to “Mr. S” during the school year, then back to “Mark” the next summer. Gave the poor kid whiplash…</p>
<p>My daughter calls her professors Professor Lastname. Most students call her music professor by his first name, but D was pretty formally brought up and can’t bring herself to do that yet, so she doesn’t call him anything. Heck, I call most of my kids high school teachers Mr. or Ms. Lastname, even the ones I’m on hugging terms with (it’s a very huggy school). Maybe this is a family or cultural thing?</p>
<p>I don’t think it really matters one way or the other, as long as you’re respectful. Half of D’s friends call me Mrs. Lastname, while the others call me by my first name. Even though I am reserved, I don’t mind if others aren’t.</p>
<p>This varies depending on college campus culture and individual instructor. At my LAC, it was somewhat common for us to be on firstname basis with our instructors though I had a few who asked us to address them by Professor [lastname]. Main issue here was many incoming freshmen/transfers had issues adjusting to calling them by firstname as they were mostly socialized to address all teachers by Mr./Mrs./Ms./Dr. [lastname]. </p>
<p>At the two elite Us where I took summer/grad courses, it was almost always expected one would address instructors by title and lastname. </p>
<p>As far as workplaces, this varied greatly even in corporate environments as supervisors were mostly on a firstname basis with the exceptions of some who expected us to address them by title [lastname]*.</p>
<ul>
<li>IME, the jerky set heavily weighed towards attorneys with a few PhDs thrown in. Yes, this subset of attorneys did expect us junior employees/colleagues to address them as “Doctor [lastname]”. They’re usually folks most colleagues…including some supervisors with those very degrees would lampoon at lunch or other occasions.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Some of this may be regional, as well as generational.
When I attended an alternative high school in the mid '70’s, I called my teachers by their first names.
My kids also called their teachers by their first names at the secular private schools they attended, starting in kindergarten. That actually was something I looked for, because to me it was an indicator of a collaborative environment.
The alternative public also found most teachers going by their first names, although a septugenarian reading teacher went by Mrs. H.</p>
<p>I think teachers or profs should choose which way they want to be addressed.
We did have a formal interim principal come into the k-12 public school D attended, for her last year, who tried to get teachers who had been called by their first names for almost three decades to go by Mr./Mrs, but they refused. As she was running roughshod over longstanding programs, it seemed just another way she was not respectful of the preexisting culture of the school.
Everyone called her by her title choice however.( well actually, she probably would have preferred * Your highness*). 8-| </p>
<p>I am a professor and I really don’t mind if students call me by my first name, or Prof. or Dr. Whatever the students prefer (I hate ma’am, though)</p>
<p>My professors always encouraged us to call them by their first name, and I don’t really think it’s a big deal one way or the other.</p>
<p>I actually call all of my instructors Professor or Dr. LastName. A lot of them have come out and said “I’m FirstName LastName and you can call me Professor/Dr. LastName,” and for those who never clearly distinguish what they want to be called, I just call them Professor LastName. (Unless it’s French class. Then I just call them Madame in class and then Professor LastName when I’m referring to them elsewhere. I know “Madame” may seem insulting to a person with a PhD, but that’s what we call almost all of our French professors here. It’s a French thing, I guess)</p>
<p>I called some of my profs by their first names, and that was back when I was riding a dinosaur. I was at a small school, and we even went to the bar with some of our professors (drinking age was 18).</p>
<p>I have had ministers whom I called by their first names, and I have called the parents of some of my friends by their first names. The key is to be respectful of whatever the person wants.</p>
<p>I just thought of this, too … I used to sub at our local high school. My next door neighbors’ kids have always called me by my first name. They always called me “Mrs. Kelsmom” in school, though. :)</p>
<p>D’s college was found by the Quakers, who are non-hierarchical. The college’s ethos is that titles create artificial barriers between people. When we had our pre - college tour, the tour leader put it this way: “I know that my professor has a PhD. He knows that he has a PhD. He knows that I know he has a PhD. There is no good reason that we both need to be reminded every time we talk.” Everyone at the college is on a first-name basis, from the first-years right up to the college president. </p>
<p>My twins are seniors in college. Different schools, one a liberal arts college, one a university. One calls professors by first name and the other by last name. Just a different “feel” at each school.</p>