There were two that stuck out to me. The first was “I feel
so OCD today”. I had no idea why that would offend the Muslim girl, and I had
to do a google search about it. I learned that it doesn’t really have anything
to do with the fact that she is Muslim, and more to do with the fact that we
shouldn’t throw around terms about serious health disorders, like OCD and bipolar,
to describe your current mood because it marginalizes what they’re going
through. The second was, “I can’t say your name. I’ll just call you J.” That’s a
tough one when you work in a school, particularly when you are the librarian
with many classes, and have hundreds of names to learn and some can be very
difficult. First off, a lot of kids don’t seem to want to draw attention to
themselves in any way, and they really would hate the teacher to pause class to
work out saying their name correctly. I pick up on that embarrassment, and
sometimes just avoid saying their name altogether if I know I’m going to butcher
it. But at the same time, “you… in the green!” or “sweetheart” can only take
you so far, and sometimes I feel like that’s actually worse than making an
attempt to say the name. I definitely have asked before if there is a nickname
I can call them instead – guilty.
