Youth of today

[andrewlee]

At what point did

1) school pupils become students?

2) children/kids/teenagers become young people/young persons

What is wrong with calling children pupils?

[:Ace:]

These days it's probably racist or something, like everything else a person can do.

[Azimov]

"Pupils" have the ability to make one see more clearly.

This is, therefore, a description which should never be applied to the youth of today!

Whoever decided to change the term, as applied to students, should be knighted not derided!

[spudqueen]

Mr Spudqueen hates school children being called students (he cringes everytime our boys headmaster says students in one of his speeches). He reckons that students choose to study (ie A levels, college or university) so children still at school are pupils.

[Kingaroo]

I'm sure it's just fashionable jargon, but one possible underlying reason might be that pupil, according to my dictionary, is supposed to refer to children who have not yet reached puberty. Student would apply more broadly to all grade levels.