With Miss f , I did get the hang of Ma’am , but she got a mixture of Miss and Ma’am, from the school as a whole
I remember once at her home being berated that we couldn’t get it right and it was thought at least I ought to have no excuse. So I asked her ‘Why not ‘Miss’?, what’s wrong with it ?’. I didn’t get a proper reply . An object was jokingly thrown in my general direction , and the response was something like ‘ Look Cat, if you want to be taught by a Miss go to New England , but don’t show your face South of the Mason Dixon !’ Yet this visit I’ve heard each used interchangeably with no comment….is it a generational thing?Any explanations?