As Maine’s teachers prepare for the first day of school, I know they have a lot on their minds. I’ve been there and done that in past years. Schedules, seating charts, forms, supplies, meetings, more forms and even more meetings. Many teachers will also be spending a considerable amount of time getting their rooms ready, being sure it is welcoming to the students, organized for learning and orderly to help keep day-to-day teaching life manageable.

Many of these teachers will have bought or made materials that reflect diverse groups of children, highlight accomplishments of a variety of historical figures or welcome the variety of children who will shortly come walking through their doors. Great work!

However. If they are truly interested in welcoming all of their students, here is something else I hope they will spend time on: practicing, if necessary, or at least taking time to learn how to pronounce the names of each child in the class.

I write this as a retired teacher and as the grandparent of a child whose name is not easy to pronounce. And I hope to speak for parents, grandparents, caregivers and all who love the children coming into your classroom.

Absolutely nothing speaks louder in welcome than hearing one’s name pronounced correctly. A teacher may think that they may be the first or even the only person to struggle a bit with a child’s name or its pronunciation. That assumption is wrong. Children whose names are even slightly unusual hear them mispronounced regularly.

Just stop and think how many times in a day children are called on or called out by name by so many adults. Way too many of those adults may not take the time to find out or ask the child about the pronunciation. If you ask the child about the pronunciation of their name, write it down phonetically somewhere so you have the reference. And then talk about what you have done in the teachers’ lounge or at faculty meetings. Good ideas should always be shared.

Think about what good modeling it is for an adult to say to a child, “Please help me know how your name is pronounced.” Remember, in this case, the child is the expert and you are the learner. In addition, when you ask a child how to pronounce their name, you give kids permission to the same if they need to.

Readers may think I am exaggerating the importance of this effort. If you do, just ask any children you know who have names that don’t just trip off our tongues about their experiences. They have many. They have experiences where adults have just given them Americanized nicknames that are easy for the adult to pronounce. Or they may have had an adult tell them how their name “should” (ugh!) be pronounced.

I wish this didn’t add to our teachers’ already too-long to-do lists. Teachers, please take care of yourselves and take something off your to-do list if at all possible.

We all mean to be welcoming; taking this step ensures teachers will truly sending that message to all of your students. May the coming school year be rich with newness and opportunities.