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An Open Letter to Dr. Jill
Dear Dr. Jill,
I’m writing as one doctor to another. Actually, two doctors to another since I have two doctorates—a juris doctor and a Ph.D. Yes, as you probably understand, it took a fair amount of time and a lot of hard work to earn those two degrees, and I’m rather proud of them.
I got the Ph.D. because I loved what I studied. I wanted to know as much as I could and be able to pass it on to others. I admit that the Ph.D. was a necessary credential to doing the kind of work I wanted to do, but it was the knowledge and not the credential that drove me.
For a variety of reasons not relevant here, I did not become a professor but turned to the law instead. I have to say my time in law school was very rewarding intellectually. I tried to explain to my fellow students, most of whom were some years younger than I, that they should thoroughly enjoy their time in school. But most of them were there for the credential and the prospect of a high-paying job. They saw the law more as a tool than as a calling. Maybe you understand that too.
As a lawyer, nobody called me “doctor.” Not once. And no other lawyer that I came in contact with, juris doctors one and all, ever asked for that honorific. It just isn’t done.
I practiced in a law firm with others who had a Ph.D. in various disciplines, and we were all judged on our skill as lawyers. Nobody thought that a Ph.D. entitled us to special recognition, even though we used that specialized knowledge in our legal practice and had clients who valued it. My Ph.D. was not just a trophy to hang on the wall. The education made me a better lawyer than I could have been without it, but it did not make me a better lawyer than the guy in the next office.
You are of course right that having a non-medical doctorate does not diminish your accomplishment. A lot of people seem to miss the point about medical degrees versus other doctorates. We call MDs “doctor” because we all need them in their professional capacity. We called our professors “doctor” because we, in our specialized pursuit, needed them in their professional capacity. It’s not that one doctorate is a cheap imitation of the other. It’s that most of us simply don’t need what you have to offer.
So here’s some friendly advice, one doctor to another: Nobody can take your degree or your education away from you, and you can give it an honored place in your own assessment of your accomplishments. But nobody owes you any special salutation. If your degree has value to you primarily as something for others to acknowledge, then you wasted your time in school.
In short, use your education to serve others, not to ask others to serve you. If someone needs your special skills, maybe that person will call you doctor. But don’t ask for it. There are plenty of people smarter and more accomplished than you or I who happily answer to Mr. or Ms. and who know that people who demand respect rarely get it.
Sincerely yours,
Hank Reynolds
FYI trivia: Brian May of Queen got his PhD in Astrophysics . . .
Until Jill Biden this wasn’t even a controversial issue. Just google Ph.D etiquette and the opinion is pretty much a consensus. If you aren’t a MD, DO, DDS, or DVM, calling yourself a doctor is considered not only pretentious but very unsophisticated. In fact it’s the kind of thing that left wingers especially expect from their own stereotype of deplorables who get a Ph.d from a diploma mill. I knew a real estate agent who got a Ph.D in “leadership”, whatever that is, from a conservative Christian college and he put Dr. in front of his name on his real estate business card. It was really absurd.
Maybe the only exception is academic Ph.Ds who actually teach in their fields. Sometimes their students call them Dr. but I doubt they usually refer to themselves that way.
Using the title in the academic environment is appropriate. Outside of the campus, no.
The Ph.D gets you “Dr.” in front of Congress, another status conscious entity.
It’s just DOCTOR Jill reminding us of her status, and ours. In other words, she’s putting us in our places – down in the muck, digging ditches or whatever non-doctors do all day, grunting out some tax revenue for the enlightened to spend as they see fit, because, y’know, they’re doctors. ‘n stuff.
We really are screwed. This is what amounts to “leadership” on the planet today. We have a dictator on one side of the globe, and gibbering idiots on the other, standing athwart history, shouting “DOCTOR”.
Exactly. I don’t mind calling someone with a PhD, EEd, or JD or Doctor of Divinity “Doctor.” It’s an honorific. But when someone insists on us using it, the honorific becomes a
bludgeonreminder of their lofty status and our lower-than-a-snake’s-belly-in-a-wagon-rut place in life . . .I and everyone else I know called our college teachers—all Ph.D.s—”Dr. Whoever.” Only later did I learn that socially they were not supposed to be addressed that way. I guess it never came up in college as I would never have dreamed of being social with one of them.
I recall a prof in graduate school who said he made a point to call himself “Dr. B—” when he took his car to a garage for maintenance. He claimed “doctors” got better, and quicker, service.
Funny, and they can also get charged more because of the perception that they can afford it. Not to mention that they can also be perceived as arrogant twits even if they’re the medical type, when they address themselves thusly under such circumstances.
Chris Wallace has stated that Mrs. Bidet should be called “Doctor” from now on. So it’s finally settled science.
Even better:
(Note the “absurdly ridiculous” size of the stimulus bill near the end.)
“Dr Bob Hartley….Drrrr. Dee Ar period.” (I’ve cued it up to the proper point).
I remember this exchange well. “I worked so hard to get that title,” she says, as though being a senator were some personal accomplishment instead of trust bestowed on her. The general, on the other hand, probably worked hard for his title.
Chris Wallace should be called “Yup Yup” from now on.
Like Jar Jar?
😂😂😂
Better than whore, whore.
Yeah, I kept threatening to make that adjustment to the signs in our neighborhood, but that would have been vandalism. Not my style. Theirs, though, it seems.
Okay, I’m sure you’re all thinking it…
That would be the putative (tee hee) vice president “elect.”