AITA for correcting my daughter’s teacher about her name?

A Redditor recounted how their daughter’s teacher consistently mispronounced her name despite polite corrections. After the teacher failed to address the issue, the parent intervened briefly during a virtual class, leading to an unexpected parent-teacher conference. Read the full story below…

 

‘ AITA for correcting my daughter’s teacher about her name?’

My 7 year old daughter’s doing virtual school in our living room recently. I heard her teacher address a girl named Kelly a few times, which stuck out to me because my daughter’s class is only about 15 kids and I know them all by this point in the year. A couple times more and I realized she was calling my daughter Kelly. My daughter’s name is Keeley, pronounced Kee-Lee.

So after school was over I asked her if that had been happening all year in this teacher’s class and she said it had and it really annoyed her. I asked her why she hadn’t corrected the teacher if it annoyed her so much and she said she had repeatedly at the beginning of the year but the teacher kept calling her Kelly, so eventually she gave up on reminding her.

I sent the teacher a quick email explaining the misunderstanding but got no response. This teacher teaches a special subject (think music, gym, art, or language), not just one grade level, so my daughter will be in her classes for the next several years, so we couldn’t just wait it out.

And how moments like these are handled now will set the stage for how my kid deals with similar situations on her own in the working world. I encouraged my daughter to come to class early or stay late her again, thinking maybe she hadn’t heard or understood her last time, so a quiet one on one would be better.

She got to the class early and she told her very politely that her name was “Keeley like really, instead of Kelly like jelly” and that people often get it confused so she just wanted to clarify. So class starts and sure enough she gets called Kelly again almost immediately. So there’s only so much self advocation a seven year old can be expected to do.

I just walked over and said “Hi, this is *Keeley’s* Dad. Her’s name not Kelly. It’s Keeley. Hard E. Sorry for any confusion.” A few hours later I had an email in my inbox “inviting” my wife and I to a parent teacher conference with the vice principle.

The long and short of the meeting ended up being the school feels that while the teacher probably should’ve learned her name, that the real problem is she feels I challenged her authority by correcting her in class and that the names were “similar enough” for it to “not have warranted such drastic action.”

That surprised me. I couldn’t believe a meeting was necessary, let alone that it cast blame on us. I can’t tell if I’m being that annoying “my kid matters most” parent that my grandmother the schoolteacher always complained about or if the teacher should just learn her damn name because that’s a basic part of her job. AITA?

Here’s how people reacted to the post:

ky_biker −  I had a teacher do that to my daughter and she only corrected herself when I started addressing her by the wrong name. Yeah NTA

ObsidianUnicorn −  NTA. Challenge her authority over YOUR child’s name? She can f**k right off. Edit: thanks for the cake day wishes! Glad we’re all in agreement on the f**k right off part. Also, thank you for the Cake day award fair stranger!

ouibuglet −  NTA at all! Good for you correcting her! Seems like she just couldn’t be bothered to learn the correct way to say her name! And what a pretty name too!

nofilter78 −  NTA- next time request a meeting with the Principal not asst Princible as that is her senior boss. Scare the s**t out of all of them.

littleteacup1976 −  NTA. I think that meeting was unnecessary and probably was escalated by the teacher. She could have spoken to you directly without the principal. As an educator who teaches kids English from foreign countries I make it a point to learn their given names even if they informally adopt an English name.

I teach kids your daughter’s age and it makes them feel valued when I call them by name. Keeley is not a difficult name. And if they say it’s close enough to Kelly then they can definitely learn it quickly.

frozen_hell66 −  If she didnt want to be called out publicly she should have listened when it was still privately. NTA. I would not have left that meeting with the blaim on me when the teacher couldnt be bothered to take the private correction seriously.

TrekkerOne −  NTA This sounds like a form of mental abuse. No one forgets a name for that long of a period of time and many corrections, nor forgets it within minutes of being corrected AGAIN. The school is condoning this disrespectful, belittling, and abusive behavior, preferring to take the easier course of blaming the parent.

Forget the vice-principal; take it up with the principal. If they still put the blame on you and your daughter, send a complaint to the school board. You may want to make sure to give a detailed account of this on-going behavior.

Fainora −  NTA your daughter has tried to correct her several times and the teachers ignored her. If the teacher doesn’t want her authority challenged she should be a better teacher.

aciddippedteeth −  Hahaha “drastic measures” ??????? OP did their due diligence to send an email and have the child arrive early to remind the teacher. If this teacher needs an email from parents, reminder from the child, then a reminder from the parent *again*…. this teacher *needed* all of these reminders to learn the proper pronunciation of their students name,

otherwise they would’ve just kept screwing it up. No drastic measures were taken. The teacher and the school just feel like idiots and they want to take it out on someone else. Of course NTA and that teacher and principal just flat out s**k.

CoderJoe1 −  NTA – I would instruct my daughter to ignore any statements the teacher made to the wrong name. After the teacher gets frustrated she should then explain, “Oh, I only answer to Keeley as that’s my name.”

Was the parent justified in stepping in, or should they have handled the situation differently? How would you address this issue if it were your child? Share your thoughts below!