Poll ranks naughty kids by name

[oldironside]

"Teachers say they can identify which children are likely to be troublemakers by their names.

A poll of 3000 teachers run by the parenting club website bounty.com, found the names Connor, Callum, Courtney and Jack were among those thought to denote a naughty child.

Callum was identified as the naughtiest boy's name, while Chelsea indicated a female troublemaker, according to the poll.

More than 49 per cent of the teachers surveyed made assumptions about a child based on their name, with 57 per cent of teachers acknowledging that naughtier children tended to be more popular than those who are well behaved.

Bounty.com spokeswoman Faye Mingo explained that teachers were only human and - rightly or wrongly - sometimes made assumptions based on their previous experiences.

"Teachers are only human and make assumptions like the rest of us." she said.

The survey also asked teachers which names they thought indicated bright pupils."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/poll-ranks-naughty-kids-by-name-1783677.html

Ah, how liberating it is to be an ex-comprehensive school teacher.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. It looks to me as if teachers assume that pupils with conventional names

are bright and those with trendy or coined names are troublemakers.

[non sociopath skin]

2. Bollocks!

Stereotyping is a sign of a closed mind.

The Skin

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. "Connor, Callum, Courtney and Jack"

These are rather ubiquitous names in the area where I live. I imagine that would increase the likelihood that some kids with these names will be naughty by simple probability.

[Mr Creosote]

4. Thing that mystifies me

Why has the Independent lifted a story about the UK from the NZ Herald?

As for the story it's bollocks - teachers have many ways of assessing children, that don't involve guesses made from their first names.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10595946

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I would guess that the Independent missed the press release from the bounty.com website

when it first came out; and when the NZ Herald decided to run it and the Independent noticed it, they thought it was easier to buy the story from the Herals rather than have someone reword the press release again.