Funny think we didn’t get into – but that JFH touched on – is titles we use when interacting with people outside our own family. I was raised to call EVERYONE Mr. So-and-so or Ms. so-and-so and when I got to the age that adults were becoming my peers it was this excruciatingly awkward thing for me to figure out when to call someone by their first name. I was LOATHE to ever use a first name. To this day, I tend to use a formal title for people who are introduced to me with their full name until they tell me to call them by their first name. I struggle with it. Sometimes it makes me look like a real weirdo. I also work with a lot of PhDs and frantically do research on who is and is not a PhD so that I call the correct people “Dr. So-and-so.” I’m going to get an ulcer one of these days. 🙂
Marisa — Good point. It’s awkward for me now to know what to call my parents’ friends — whom I was raised to always call “Mr. and Mrs. So and So.” In the summers during college, I worked for one of them and she asked me to call her by her first name, but it was SO weird to me. I did it, but it always felt like it stuck in my mouth.
I know I’m being petty and probably have a chip on my shoulder, but I refuse to call anybody but an MD “Doctor” (Okay, I might make the exception for PhD of theology).
I have just met TOO many mediocre PhDs for me to respect the degree. This is especially true in areas, where I know people in the same field or same office that are just as talented/intelligent/knowledgeable as the “Dr.” in their midst.
That said, I have no problem with them listing their degree as a title after their name (e.g. John Smith, PhD) and I make sure my kids know the proper etiquette.
Random title and politeness anecdote – When my dad first married my step-mom, I was 7 and and my older stepsister was 12. I never had older siblings so I never really spent any time around children that much older than me. I remember that I thought 12 was very nearly a grown up. So my 7 year old self would “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Ma’am” to my new big sister and she would get indignant and wave her hands in the air and exclaim, “STOP IT! I’m TWELVE!”
JFH — I’m curious why you’d make an exception for a Ph.D. in theology but nothing else. Why is that somehow more exceptional than any other Ph.D.? I’m just trying to figure out your thought process here. (My sister has a Ph.D. in psychology, but she’s not militant about people calling her Dr. So and So.)
Most degrees — of any kind — just show how well a person can navigate the educational system, not how smart they are. And I say this as a person with a degree.
I guess the issue is around the PhDs that ARE militant about others calling them Dr. So and So (Again, I’m being petty). I think the following article expresses my opinion the best (It, perhaps influenced me to this line of thinking as I remember it enough to look it up):
Thanks, hon. 🙂
Funny think we didn’t get into – but that JFH touched on – is titles we use when interacting with people outside our own family. I was raised to call EVERYONE Mr. So-and-so or Ms. so-and-so and when I got to the age that adults were becoming my peers it was this excruciatingly awkward thing for me to figure out when to call someone by their first name. I was LOATHE to ever use a first name. To this day, I tend to use a formal title for people who are introduced to me with their full name until they tell me to call them by their first name. I struggle with it. Sometimes it makes me look like a real weirdo. I also work with a lot of PhDs and frantically do research on who is and is not a PhD so that I call the correct people “Dr. So-and-so.” I’m going to get an ulcer one of these days. 🙂
Marisa — Good point. It’s awkward for me now to know what to call my parents’ friends — whom I was raised to always call “Mr. and Mrs. So and So.” In the summers during college, I worked for one of them and she asked me to call her by her first name, but it was SO weird to me. I did it, but it always felt like it stuck in my mouth.
I know I’m being petty and probably have a chip on my shoulder, but I refuse to call anybody but an MD “Doctor” (Okay, I might make the exception for PhD of theology).
I have just met TOO many mediocre PhDs for me to respect the degree. This is especially true in areas, where I know people in the same field or same office that are just as talented/intelligent/knowledgeable as the “Dr.” in their midst.
That said, I have no problem with them listing their degree as a title after their name (e.g. John Smith, PhD) and I make sure my kids know the proper etiquette.
Random title and politeness anecdote – When my dad first married my step-mom, I was 7 and and my older stepsister was 12. I never had older siblings so I never really spent any time around children that much older than me. I remember that I thought 12 was very nearly a grown up. So my 7 year old self would “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Ma’am” to my new big sister and she would get indignant and wave her hands in the air and exclaim, “STOP IT! I’m TWELVE!”
🙂
Hahahahahaha! “Stop it! I’m TWELVE!!” I’m howling over here.
JFH — I’m curious why you’d make an exception for a Ph.D. in theology but nothing else. Why is that somehow more exceptional than any other Ph.D.? I’m just trying to figure out your thought process here. (My sister has a Ph.D. in psychology, but she’s not militant about people calling her Dr. So and So.)
Most degrees — of any kind — just show how well a person can navigate the educational system, not how smart they are. And I say this as a person with a degree.
I guess the issue is around the PhDs that ARE militant about others calling them Dr. So and So (Again, I’m being petty). I think the following article expresses my opinion the best (It, perhaps influenced me to this line of thinking as I remember it enough to look it up):
http://old.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment012502.shtml