Title Fight - Status Games
Dr. Lawyer, Dr. Physician, Dr. Biden. Remembering one of the odder partisan controversies.
A week from now, President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will leave the White House. Looking back on his four years in office and the 2020 campaign’s aftermath, perhaps the oddest and most unnecessary controversy was the one by some commentators, mostly on the right, about the use of the title “doctor” by the First Lady. What perhaps unsurprisingly made it odd was that it was not only partisan but also had nothing to do with the real issues about the title “doctor” and went with the charged idea that only physicians and maybe some scientists are “real” doctors. Part of this is a form of juvenile rebelliousness against the education establishment, but most is just a profound lack of knowledge about the history and development of the Western scholastic tradition. The fact is that the origins and point of much of our civilizational habits and mores have been lost, and this leaves society unable to appreciate or understand itself or offer reasoned critiques when they may be required.
The importance placed on titles and honorifics can vary from one group or subculture to another. For example, African Americans really value using the title “doctor/Dr.” earned through completing terminal research degrees. Whereas among some other Americans, especially some whites who, by personal inclination, have a leveling bent or are skeptical of hierarchy, using first names and ditching honorifics has become common. But African Americans, especially from older generations, use honorifics and titles like “professor” more frequently professionally and academically due to having our achievements, educational or otherwise, ignored, belittled, and attacked for most of American history. Due to this past, some African Americans and other non-whites can find some whites’ leveling and familiar tendencies offensive. It is a simple cultural misunderstanding, relatively minor. Some whites may see the use of titles as creating a barrier, and African Americans are reminded that the lack of regard for titles was used to establish barriers and dominance and to say, in effect, that no achievement would make them equal to whites. This means there can be a cultural difference regarding the importance of earned titles. Recognizing the role that history plays in how people interpret seemingly trivial events is important to keep out of avoidable frays. However, the real controversy over the legitimacy of the titles themselves has to do with educational intent and academic culture nationally and even internationally rather than ethnic communities.
Furthermore, the Biden’s aside there’s even confusion over some lawyers using the title. I know, surprisingly doctoral title inflation among lawyers is a thing in some circles, but thankfully, most American lawyers have the sense to steer clear. Let me explain. It is highly unusual for a lawyer who only holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.), aka the Doctor of Jurisprudence, to be called a doctor or to insist on it. If they are professors without other degrees, like a Ph.D. in another field, they are much more likely to be called “professors” unless their university has a special rule, which would be odd. Still, an institution could, of course, do an odd thing.
Now, here’s the thing: the J.D. in America used to be called the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). As late as the 1960s, U.S. law schools still used LL.B. The J.D. is considered a professional degree. It is a common understanding that a doctor refers to someone who has conducted significant accredited and supervised research in their field or practices medicine. That is someone who has earned an advanced research degree or a postgraduate medical degree. Origins matter; with this knowledge, the numerous academic initials in circulation out there in the wild are confusing.
Where did “doctor” come from anyway?
For a long time, physicians and practitioners of medicine did not use the term because “doctor” referred to professors as it came from the Latin “doceo,” meaning “I teach.” Yep, that’s right, the medical field is the original doctoral graspers. The continued influence of “doceo” can be seen in the modern word “docent,” you know, the kind folks at the museum who explain everything. They are museum “teachers” and hence docents. The ambiguity in using the term for medical practitioners varies between countries. For example, in the UK, surgeons are not called doctors but use the common Mr/Ms/Mrs instead.
In contrast, UK physicians are now called “doctors.” In the UK, a law degree is still called a Bachelor of Laws, not a Juris Doctor, but J.D.s from the U.S. and LL.Bs. from the UK are treated as equivalents in both countries. That’s actually kind of wild; a skilled surgeon in the UK is not a “doctor,” but in the U.S., it would be considered crazy not to call them a doctor. As my students are probably tired of hearing me say “culture, culture, culture.”
While the American Bar Association dropped its objections to using the title doctor and started promoting it to an extent, American society has not played along in part because people, including many lawyers, are wary of confusion, and of the modern ABA’s tendency was self-aggrandizement and overreach. For example, the Wall Street Journal Style Guide explicitly says not to use “doctor” for lawyers. The Economist also takes a stand against it for US/UK lawyers. Some American lawyers are jealous of lawyers in some European countries who are called doctors. However, this also is an issue in Europe as the Bologna Process – named after the University of Bologna, where the first medieval “doctorates” were conferred – is creating frameworks for degree compatibility across Europe, meaning a bachelor’s in one country should be similar in standards to one in another.
Nevertheless, anyone with a three-year bachelor’s degree in Italy is called a “dottore/dottoressa” or doctor. Yes, you read that right. This, of course, is a problem if you want clarity about someone’s academic credential based on their title, so Italy introduced… wait for it….““Masterly Doctor” (dottore/dottoressa magistrale) for someone with a master’s degree, and those with a Ph.D. equivalent are (“dottore/dottoressa di ricerca”) or simply “research-doctor.” In Malta, lawyers don’t use the title doctor when abroad; even domestically, they are going in the opposite direction of the American Bar Association.
Now, back to law degrees in America. Law is different in that the J.D. is the lesser degree. In the United States, the law master’s degree, the Master of Laws (LL.M.), aka the Legum Magister, is ranked higher than the J.D. Often, a full law professor needs an LL.M., but not always. But an LL.M. proves you are a trained specialist in a particular legal field, not simply the general practice of law. Additionally, there is an even higher degree, the Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.), which involves the research and mastery associated with a Ph.D., and a lawyer with an S.J.D. is called a doctor without reservation because they have a recognized Ph.D. equivalent.
Dr. Jill Biden’s Doctor of Education/EdD is a doctorate but one that has a century of controversy that has nothing to do with Dr. Biden herself. Basically, it comes down to the fact that “doctor” is the most prestigious title among scholars, and the education field had two doctorates: a PhD and the EdD that was created in the 1920s. The EdD was established as a professional qualification, but the naming drew criticism from the liberal arts and the social sciences, who jealously guarded the prestige of the research-intensive PhD. Harvard is to blame for that one. Thirty years earlier, Columbia University awarded the first PhD in education. However, Harvard decided that a professional and administrative degree was needed for educators and that it should be a doctorate. Okay, fine, it is a century in the past now, but Harvard contributed to one hundred years of confusion over what the education doctorate was for and why it had that title. A decade ago, Harvard changed it up again; in 2013, the last Harvard EdD cohort was enrolled, and the degree was afterward replaced with the Ed.L.D, the Doctor of Educational Leadership for “Preparing transformative leaders to have the capacity to guide complex organizations, navigate political environments, and create systemic change in the field of education.” So, once again, a professional administrator’s degree. I, um, don’t think that is going to fix the confusion as Harvard also still offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Education for "Training cutting-edge researchers who work across disciplines, generate knowledge, and translate discoveries into transformative policy and practice.” So two doctorates, and only one is research-focused, the preexisting Ph.D. So why does the professional degree need to be a doctorate? That remains the point of contention in academia.
Our society has been both immaturely dismissive of earned status and achievements and obsessed with seeking attention and status, what the kids these days call “clout-chasing.” Professional and academic formality does not have to be weird, and using someone’s proper title does not make you subservient, nor does it make them better than anyone else. Sometimes it is just being polite. Maybe it is time we return to basics and chill it a bit. In any event, Dr. Jill Biden earned her degree according to the rules then in place for eighty years and started by the oldest institution of higher learning in the U.S. Whether or not the education field needs two doctorates is separate from the question of showing the First Lady proper respect. The dispute over her title is one of the odder things I will remember from the Biden years in the White House.