12

In Bethan Roberts' 2012 novel My Policeman, Marion Taylor begins working as a schoolteacher in 1957. She writes her name on the chalkboard for her students:

A moment passed as I gathered myself, then the chalk touched the slate and began to form letters; there was that lovely, echoey sound—so delicate and yet so definite—as I wrote, in capitals:
MISS TAYLOR.
I stood back and looked at what my hand had written. The letters climbed towards the right-hand side of the board as if they, too, wanted to escape the room.
MISS TAYLOR
—my name from now on, then

(p. 21)

In March 1958, she marries Tom Burgess. She is generally referred to as "Mrs Burgess" from then on; Tom signs them into a hotel as "Mr and Mrs Burgess" (p. 88), and the counsel for the prosecution at the trial of Tom's lover Patrick addresses her as such:

Mrs Burgess, I would like to read an extract from Patrick Hazlewood's diary to you.

(p. 124)

Marion's marriage is not a secret among her colleagues, and there is no indication that she keeps it from her students. However, the schoolchildren apparently still address her as "Miss". In July 1958, which is presumably during the next school year, one of Marion's pupils calls out to her:

"Miss, Milly's crying. ... I think she's wet herself, miss."

(p. 102)

I would have expected the student to address her teacher as Mrs Burgess or Ma'am rather than Miss. Were female teachers in the 1950s referred to as "Miss" regardless of marital status?

References

Roberts, Bethan. My Policeman. London: Chatto and Windus, 2012. Epub version 1.0, ISBN 9781448130986.

verbose
  • 26,907
  • 2
  • 63
  • 159

2 Answers2

27

Bethan Roberts is British, and My Policeman is set in Britain. In British schools, it's still the norm today to refer to all female teachers as "Miss" regardless of their marital status. As user @GarethRees points out, British dictionaries still carry this as a definition of "Miss" - his example is from the OED:

A form of address to a female teacher (corresponding to sir n. 7).

The OED is generally seen as definitive but sadly I don't have access to it. However, a quick search suggests it's common. This is from the Cambridge Dictionary:

sometimes used by children to address or refer to teachers who are women: Can I go to the toilet, Miss?

According to this article on the BBC, the practice started because it was once the case that married women were barred from being teachers, so all female teachers would have been "Miss" by default.

Until the 1944 Education Act, women teachers could not marry and remain in post. Teaching had been seen as incompatible with a wife's domestic duties. When a female teacher tried to overturn the law in 1925, the Court of Appeal ruled against her: "It is unfair to the large number of young unmarried teachers seeking situations that the positions should be occupied by married women, who presumably have husbands capable of maintaining them." So before the marriage bar was lifted, "Miss" was always going to be accurate.

So if it remains common today, it was certainly the norm in the 1950's, not long after the passage of the 1944 Education Act (sometimes known as the Butler act).

It's probably worth clarifying that this is exclusively a second-person form of address used by children in the school setting, i.e. "I know the answer, Miss". In the third person, children and adults alike will generally use the correct title, i.e. "I have Mrs Smith for maths later".

Matt Thrower
  • 22,097
  • 4
  • 63
  • 139
  • 3
    This is sense 3c in the OED "A form of address to a female teacher (corresponding to sir n. 7)." – Gareth Rees Mar 17 '23 at 09:15
  • @GarethRees thanks, I have added this - didn't think to check a dictionary. – Matt Thrower Mar 17 '23 at 09:21
  • 4
    Matt, are you a member of your local library? Your library number for most UK public libraries can be used to log on to the OED – Spagirl Mar 17 '23 at 10:43
  • 1
    I think you mean second-person form of address. The first person is ‘I’ and is grammatically excluded from function as addressee in English. (Also, I believe Miss can be narrowed down even further: it’s only used as a form of address when the name is omitted. If the name is included, it would still be ‘Mrs Burgess’ if she’s married, not ‘Miss Burgess’.) – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 17 '23 at 18:50
  • 1
    @janusbahsjacquet of course, I will correct that. One thing teachers, female or otherwise, never taught at UK schools on the 80s was grammar. And while your second point is also technically correct it's just not a turn of phase kids would realistically use. It's always just "miss" or "sir". – Matt Thrower Mar 17 '23 at 19:36
  • 1
    Very true. The only context I can think of where you might hear the name when addressing would be if there are two teachers (of the same sex) and the pupil wishes to address one of them. // On a side note, I have to say I’m a bit shocked that married women were banned from teaching as late as 1944. Working in general was of course widely seen to clash with marriage for women, but I didn’t realise it was actually enshrined in law, much less so late! – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 17 '23 at 19:52
  • 2
    Regarding your final paragraph, it's not uncommon nowadays to hear adults working in schools, like teaching assistants, use 'Miss' or 'Sir' in the third person to students ('Go ask Miss for what you should do next') or occasionally to address teachers ('Can I take Jimmy to the office, Sir?'). Sometimes it covers for them not knowing the teacher's surname and other times it's just a habit. I personally dislike it pretty strongly, but I have seen it a lot. – dbmag9 Mar 17 '23 at 21:35
  • 2
    And of course most schoolchildren do not pay much attention to the Mrs/Miss/Ms distinction in titles, and female teachers get very familiar with the wrong one being used constantly. – dbmag9 Mar 17 '23 at 21:36
  • I'll note that this isn't purely a British thing; the school my wife taught at in the Bronx was a 100% "Miss" school (not even "Miss Lastname", just "Miss" most of the time). I wouldn't be surprised if it was for similar reasons as in Britain (a lot of inner city school teachers are younger teachers, often straight out of Teach for America and the like, and therefore they're rarely married). It's also, by far, the easiest one to say, "Mrs." and "Ms." take more time and energy to say, "Miss" is easiest. – ShadowRanger Mar 19 '23 at 13:15
  • Is it just the British students who address their teacher with a Miss or Sir? What about the colleagues of a teacher? How do they call him/her inside an educational institution? – Snack Exchange Jul 19 '23 at 10:48
  • @SnackExchange - Teachers address their colleagues in the same way as people in any other profession - probably by first names in private. They would use Mr/Mrs/Miss X in front of the children. – Kate Bunting Dec 11 '23 at 19:10
0

'Miss' or 'Sir' is used in the third person when the name very clearly refers to a particular Miss or Sir. This would usually be a teacher who is physically present or one who has been previously identified by name.

"Did Miss say when we're having the test?"

  • 3
    Hi and welcome to Literature Stack Exchange. Have you noticed that the question is about a form of address, i.e. the second person instead of the third? – Tsundoku Mar 17 '23 at 19:38
  • 1
    @Randal'Thor I think this usage is also not unusual in the UK. You can find an example here: https://www.stthomasofcanterburyprimaryschool.co.uk/year-34-miss-bagnara/ "Miss set us a challenge". Would you like to mention what parts of the English-speaking world your experience is based on? – James Martin Mar 17 '23 at 21:09
  • 1
    @Randal'Thor In my experience, female teachers in India are addressed as teacher —you'd ask, "Please, teacher, may I come in?", when you're entering a classroom where she's already present. And they're referred to by either their first or last names followed by teacher: "I have Gonsalvez teacher for Algebra, and Norma teacher for Biology." I've never heard any student refer to a female teacher as "Miss" in India, in second- or third-person form. – verbose Mar 18 '23 at 07:19
  • 1
    @Randal'Thor The equivalent for male teachers is sir, used similarly: "Please, sir, may I come in?" — "I have Joseph sir for Physics and Augustine sir for History." I'ven't a clue about when first vs last names were used, though. It didn't seem to track with age or marital status for either men or women. I went to a school run by Franciscan monks, so about a quarter of the time the tag was predictably different — "Please, Father, may I come in?"; "I have Father Pinto for Chemistry and Father Bertrand for English." – verbose Mar 18 '23 at 07:25