4.0065 Forms of Address (81)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 17 May 90 17:01:16 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0065. Thursday, 17 May 1990.
(1) Date: Wed, 16 May 90 23:12:57 EDT (12 lines)
From: "Matthew B. Gilmore" <GY945C@GWUVM>
Subject: form of address first/last name
(2) Date: Wednesday, 16 May 1990 23:48:00 EDT (24 lines)
From: "Patrick W. Conner" <U47C2@WVNVM>
Subject: 4.0058 Addressing Students and Others
(3) Date: Wed, 16 May 90 23:34:34 EDT (28 lines)
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Students' names
(4) Date: Thu, 17 May 90 01:00:16 -0400 (17 lines)
From: Robert Hollander <bobh@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Re: 4.0058 Addressing Students and Others
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 May 90 23:12:57 EDT
From: "Matthew B. Gilmore" <GY945C@GWUVM>
Subject: form of address first/last name
Studenthood within recent memory, I recall amongst the students
professors were referred to by their last name--Smith, Jones (pseudonyms
to protect the guilty), usually Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones to their face. As
a ubiquitous research assistant to two professors, I eventually got
around to using John and Jane in conversation with them, for some of the
faculty. It sometimes seemed awkward. But since towards the end of the
program we are just about ready to be colleagues the first name basis
seemed ok. But then I obviously had more contact.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------32----
Date: Wednesday, 16 May 1990 23:48:00 EDT
From: "Patrick W. Conner" <U47C2@WVNVM>
Subject: 4.0058 Addressing Students and Others (100)
I attended a very small high school (15 graduating seniors and it was
literally high--it was on the second floor of the building which also
contained the elementary school); I had been called by my middle name
all my life because the town was so small that everyone knew that that's
what I was called by at home. On my first day at the University, my
instructor addressed me as Mr. Conner, and I remember thinking that
finally I had some sort of status in the world, albeit very very small.
Consequently, I call my undergraduates Mr./Ms. and I tell them that I do
it because I think that they are now adults. Then I tell them how I was
amazed to discover that I was entitled to be a Mr. Conner, and urge them
to consider the value of relationships which do not assume an easy
familiarity. I may use their first names (and I may not) in tutorial
situations, and it's a mixed bag with graduate students, depending on
many things, but usually I move to a first name basis with graduates
very quickly, because I think of them as colleagues-in-training. I find
that--more or less--the same thing is true reciprocally: under- grads
call me Mr/Dr/Prof (I never explain professional titles unless asked)
and graduates often call me Pat out of class and Dr. Conner in class.
Being a medievalist, I find all of that just Bysantine enough to be
enjoyable.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------35----
Date: Wed, 16 May 90 23:34:34 EDT
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Students' names
When I entered first year university in 1951, the transition from high
school to university was marked by the fact that we were now called
"Miss" and Mr.", a change that gave us all shivers of pride. But then,
the whole University of Toronto only had 8000 students, and no one felt
lost or anonymous. Today the university is somewhere in the 40,000
range (I don't want to know the exact figure!), and the students I teach
tell me my classes of 30-60 are sometimes the smallest they have.
Instead of being rooted in the lives of their college and travelling
year by year with a cohort of at most 150, they range all over the
university, dropping in and dropping out as finances make it possible. I
cannot, to save my life, call these dislocated kids "Miss" or "Mr."
Indeed, they learn each others' first names from me, as I use them in
class. They are deeply courteous to me, always addressing me as
"Professor." Which is fine; I don't mind teen-agers being courteous to
me. My grad students call me by my first name, and vice versa. My
point is that all lot of these arrangements are and _have_ to be
situational. My colleagues seem to follow the same procedure; "James"
and "Alice" in the common room turn into "Professor ----" in the
Department meeting, which is appropriate to that situation. Even more
so if James and Alice are currently fighting over which of them is going
to car-pool their kids to day-care! In effect, the practice appropriate
to the situation is making it possible for everyone to engage in civil
discourse. Which I hope hope is the result of first names in the
classroom too. Germaine Warkentin
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: Thu, 17 May 90 01:00:16 -0400
From: Robert Hollander <bobh@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Re: 4.0058 Addressing Students and Others (100)
My favorite story about this rank-conscious business of naming goes back
many years. I heard it when I was a graduate student at Columbia in the
early sixties. Some many years before even then, it was told me on good
authority, Andrew Chiappe, a person of exquisite sensibility, joined the
Columbia College English faculty at the (then exalted) rank of
Instructor.
Lionel Trilling, himself not much olde than Chiappe (pron. "shap" on
this side of the water) found himself introducing the new guy to the very
distinguished Joseph Wood Krutch. Says Trilling, "Andrew, I would like
you to meet Joseph Wood Krutch. He likes to be called 'Joe.'"
Responds Chiappe: "How do you do, Joe. May I call you Professor Krutch."