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Re: Titles



Curiously enough, this thread began on a day when I chose to tell
somebody about my degree. Last week I started a new job (with
Integrated Engineering Software), and though my degree was essential for
getting the job I didn't think to inform the secretary of it when we
were introduced. So, I was going over the phone list trying to get
familiar with names and realized that there were several Dr's on it and
I was down as Mr. Doug Craigen. So I had to tell her "not that I'm
really hung up on this, but since you seem to use titles as
appropriate...". If I hadn't done so, I know it would have eventually
turned into something more embarrassing - best to nip it in the bud.

Curiously, rather than a source of pride I find the degree to be an
unending source of small embarrassments such as the one above. One of
the bigger ones was while I was teaching at Acadia University one of my
best friends was telling a tale of phoning my office, and since I was
out the secretary picked up my line and answered "Dr Craigen's office".
At this point he and the others started giggling. It suddenly occured
to me that this was the punch line, they thought she had made a
mistake. Then, it occured to the others that I wasn't laughing...
somewhat embarrassing all around.

I've never told a student to call me Dr. Craigen. What I do is put
Professor: Dr. Doug Craigen on the handout sheets in the first class.
From that, they can choose what to call me. Some students have called
me Doug, it matters not. Most students call me Dr. Craigen and I figure
that its all for the best. I maintain something of a buddy-buddy
relationship overall, so it helps keep them from mistaking me for a good
guy who would never assign a mark that would hurt their scholarship...
My wife worked in Admissions both at UBC and at Wilfred Laurier
University and says the rule office staff are given is to address Dr's
as Dr So and So and the others as Professor So and So. Calling them Dr
shows more respect since you can be "just" a professor.

The one time that everybody agrees that I was a "real doctor" was when I
delivered our son. I was on the phone telling our baby sitter that she
should head over to watch our girls since Jacquie had just gone into
labor a few minutes ago, but that it seemed to be progressing quickly.
Then Jacquie screamed, I dropped the phone to see what happened, and a
few minutes later I picked up the phone to say it was a boy. (It was a
lot more work getting the PhD I'll say that much.)

This idea of physicians being the only "real doctors" is kind of
annoying. Its not that I crave the title, but I don't appreciate being
told its not real. I don't begrudge the medical community for taking on
the title in order to raise the level of respect for their profession,
but basic fairness says that they should then be the last ones to object
to others who do the same after they got the ball rolling - let alone
object to using the title for those who earned it in the original sense
of the word. I always thought Ann Landers had a greater sense of
fairness than that, but perhaps she has never studied the history of the
word. James Burke gave a good summary in one of his series, I was
hoping somebody would summarize it here.

Do I ever throw my degree around to get more respect? Never in a
restaurant, hotel etc, but it is tempting when I'm on shakey ground in
an argument to let the other party know how smart and educated I am.
Then I usually remind myself that if we were talking about an area where
I truly am that educated I wouldn't be feeling a need to intimidate my
opponent, and hence usually duck the temptation.

Just my 2c worth. Happy New Year all.

\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\

Doug Craigen
http://www.dctech.com/physics/about_dc.html