Re: "Dr." and all that

[Larry Smith <Larry.Smith@SNOW.EDU>]

At 4:06 PM -0600 12/29/00, Laurent Hodges wrote:
> Some Americans think "Dr." should only be used for M.D.s, but I notice that
> most people - adults and students - will refer to me as "Dr. Hodges" rather
> than "Mr. Hodges,"  and likewise with other university faculty.  Sometimes
> they use "Professor Hodges," of course.  Students often don't use any name.
> This past fall one of my female recitation students would call out,
> "Laurent," and it always startled me because I don't think any other
> student in the past 30+ years called me by my first name.  (Most, I think,
> are unwilling to try to pronounce it.)
>
> Here's something curious, though:  An English doctor told me that in the
> England medical interns are called "Dr." but the distinguished surgeons are
> respectfully referred to as "Mister."

I've been teaching for a long time now, and I still haven't figured out
what I should reply to student queries about what they should call me.  I
usually answer that they can call me whatever they want as long as it isn't
derogatory, but I wonder if that is the right answer.  My own grad school
advisor insisted we call him by his first name, so I did, but I never
ventured to do that to my undergrad professors.  But that was a generation
ago--a different time then.

I have very little ego bound up in my own PhD, and most of my own students
(I teach at a 2-yr college) call me by my first name.  It hasn't bothered
me except I often wonder if there _ought_ to be a proper distance or
respect between professor and student; that is, would the education be
enhanced by having my students call me Dr. Smith?  (This past semester some
of them took to calling me Dr. Larry; maybe that is a reasonable
compromise.)

Is casual familiarity with one's professors a good thing or a detrimental
thing to one's education?  (For example, does it lead more to the
student-as-consumer model of education rather than to my preferred
student-as-apprentice model?)

Is it extra confusing for students at schools or colleges where not all
their professors hold doctorate degrees--to have to remember which to call
Dr. and which to call Mr. or Ms.?  Maybe Professor covers it all.

I cut out an Ann Landers column recently on this topic and thought you
might want to opine about it as well as my musings above.

-------begin Ann Landers letter quote-------

NOT A DOC

Dear Ann Landers:

I am writing about the propriety of academics calling themselves "Dr."
This anecdote might settle it.

When I entered the University of Chicago more than 60 years ago, the
esteemed President Robert Maynard Hutchins welcomed our class and told us
that he wished to be addressed as "Mister Hutchins."  That way, he said, no
one would rush over and ask him to fix someone's broken leg.

Your answer to the associate professor in Kansa was right on.

P.S.: My husband and daughter both are J.D.s and would laugh out loud if
addressed as "doctor" in or out of court.

--R.N., West Hollywood, Calif.


Dear R.N.:

Robert Hutchins was considered an extraordinary man and is legendary among
University of Chicago graduates.  My friends who knew him say he was a
giant in the field of education.  Thanks for showcasing his humility and
keen sense of humor.

-------end Ann Landers letter quote-------

Maybe Mister Hutchins knew Laurent's story about England.

What do you have your students call you and why?

Thanks,
Larry