As long as the degree isn’t doctored, with a bona fide doctorate, Dr Biden is quite entitled to her prefix
The liberal groves of academia in the US will gladly accept a Dr Flotus as one of their own.
By ET Bureau |
Reuters
Indians, used to all manner of people using the prefix Dr before their names, must be puzzled about the commotion over the soon-to-be First Lady of the United States (Flotus) using that title.
The naïve argument put forward by Dr Jill Biden’s critics that only medical doctors should use that prefix — a misconception probably aided by the practice of many media houses of doing just that — would surely annoy academia, a sphere that possibly has as many ‘Drs’ as the medical profession.
Whether her EdD, or doctorate in education, is as worthy of a Dr prefix as any other supposedly weightier academic field is too esoteric a point for a national debate. In any case, the liberal groves of academia in the US will probably gladly accept a Dr Flotus as one of their own.
Moreover, her critics may also be surprised to learn that in the UK, surgeons — regarded as bona fide doctors anywhere else in the world — are denied use of that prefix.
Indians are very liberal when it comes to acceptance of Dr prefixes used by prominent people from all professions, including honorary degrees from institutions of widely varying standing.
The gravitas offered by that prefix cannot be discounted, of course, which would explain the alacrity of the political class in India to use the title, even if honorary — or, in some cases, entirely fictitious.
The naïve argument put forward by Dr Jill Biden’s critics that only medical doctors should use that prefix — a misconception probably aided by the practice of many media houses of doing just that — would surely annoy academia, a sphere that possibly has as many ‘Drs’ as the medical profession.
Whether her EdD, or doctorate in education, is as worthy of a Dr prefix as any other supposedly weightier academic field is too esoteric a point for a national debate. In any case, the liberal groves of academia in the US will probably gladly accept a Dr Flotus as one of their own.
Moreover, her critics may also be surprised to learn that in the UK, surgeons — regarded as bona fide doctors anywhere else in the world — are denied use of that prefix.
Indians are very liberal when it comes to acceptance of Dr prefixes used by prominent people from all professions, including honorary degrees from institutions of widely varying standing.
The gravitas offered by that prefix cannot be discounted, of course, which would explain the alacrity of the political class in India to use the title, even if honorary — or, in some cases, entirely fictitious.
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