Honorifics

No doubt you are aware of this tempest in a teapot over a Wall Street Journal op-ed writer condescendingly attacking Jill Biden for calling herself " Dr. Biden. " Regardless of anything one may feel about the merits of who gets to be called " Doctor, "  it is idiotic to be dismissive about the value of pedagogical research in general or the specific issue of retention of students in community college. The conceit that there are higher and lower scholarly disciplines is fatuous.But while we ' re here we might as well talk about the whole concept of honorifics.  In the first place, I am a doctor of philosophy. My students often spontaneously call me " Dr. Cervantes " (not my real name) as do colleagues who are introducing themselves. I don ' t ask people to do it and I don ' t care if they don ' t. Joseph Epstein probably thinks that Social Policy is an inferior subject, as well, but that ' s beside the point. I spent as much time in school after my bachelor ' s degree as do doctors of medicine, in fact more, so if we ' re going to go around calling people " doctor " I don ' t see any evident reason why only doctors of medicine should get the recognition. In fact most doctors of medicine aren ' t even scholars at all, they ' re just practitioners, although there are many exceptions, notably where I work. But I and my colleagues spend our professional lifetimes studying, researching, writing and teaching. I think that ' s as respectable as sawing bones.On the othe...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs