MY NAME IS MARGUERITA

Years ago, in one of my graduate class at CSULA, we were asked to introduce ourselves. When we came to a young Latina woman, she said, "My name is Marguerita, but you can call me Maggie." Someone must have asked, because she went on to further explain how she became Maggie.

I will never forget her story or what happened as she told it.

It was her first day of kindergarten and she had been so excited to finally be going to school.  She walked into her classroom and there were names displayed on each desks. As she walked around eagerly to find hers, she soon realized it wasn't there. The teacher approached her and took her to a desk with a name she did not recognize. She had "changed" her name to Maggie.

At this point in the story Marguerita started to cry. "I don't know why I am crying," she apologized.
The other graduate students in the class (all teachers) knew why.

Yesterday my friend Claudia posted this article:

http://qz.com/775492/what-minority-students-hear-when-white-teachers-mispronounce-their-names/

Although the article is titled white teachers, it should state all teachers, should honor given names of students. And like my dear friend Joycelyn so eloquently pointed out, changing names is not limited to English Learners.

In same cases, ethnic names are not changed by teachers, but students and families themselves. In those cases, I wonder if the effect is as negative, or is it more of empowerment, having the choice to choose a name for yourself. I heard stories from friends that worked at college admissions offices where foreign students would ask them to give them "good" American names.

I remember my incredibly gifted first grade student Yongsung, who came back to school the following year and started to write Thomas on his papers. "Who is Thomas?" I asked him, he said he had changed it to be like Thomas Edison.

Names are a funny thing. Some of us love ours. Others would change it in a minute, but they are all reflective of who we are. Jane was not my birth name. It wasn't the name my parents had carefully chosen for me. It wasn't even the name on my immigration papers when I arrive in America over 50 years ago. No one called me that at home.  But back then, ethnic names were not the norm or used often in classrooms. So parents would change their children's name before they entered public schools.

I would say that has changed considerably today. I have always had names that were challenging to say, but I was determined to learn them all. Some even made up by parents, but you still value who they are and honor the name given. It took me a good month and practice to say the name Idalia in my first class. She was a lovely, quiet girl and darn it, I was going to make my tongue roll like it hadn't before!

Last names can be a challenge too, but who doesn't love a good challenge! Khurelbaatar! Billy was his first name, but I loved saying his last name!