By Hal Brown, MSW, Not a doctor
This Isn’t A Political Diary
It’s difficult to find subjects few if anybody else is writing about. I do my best in an attempt to be original. Here’s one I haven’t seen anywhere else.
A true story:
When I was in the last semester of my senior year of college and had all the courses I needed to graduate with a BA in psychology I filled my schedule with courses the piqued my interest. One was about innovation and adoption of radical new ideas. It was taught in the Michigan State University Communications Department. The professor was Everett Rogers. He would eventually become famous in his field. He was an excellent teacher who related very well to the students. He told us many stories about his experiences in the Peace Corps in third world countries where he developed an interest in how cultures resisted and eventually accepted innovations in agriculture. He originated the diffusion of innovations theory.
Apropos of nothing he told the class this story.
He was on an airplane when the flight attendant (then they were called stewardesses) came on the PA and call for Dr. Roger and Dr. So-and-so to come to the front of the plane where a woman had gone into labor. She asked them if they could assist in the delivery. They both agreed and with substantial held from two flight attendants the baby was delivered successfully.
Afterwards the two men, both manifestly anxious, went and had a chat at the back of the plane. Dr. Rogers said to Dr. So-and-so “I sure am glad you’re a real doctor because I just have a PhD in communications.” So-and-so’s jaw dropped and with a look of astonishment said “I thought you were a real doctor, I have my doctorate in divinity.”
Dr. Rogers told my class that if one was a believer they might say that the birth went fine because of divine intervention, but he said that the real credit went to the two flight attendants who actually were trained in how to deliver a baby.
My point, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is that until last night I thought Dr. Biden was a medical doctor. Then I learned about Jill Biden’s admirable and impressive career as a teacher, junior college professor, reading specialist, and teacher of history to emotionally disturbed students. I learned how she earned her doctorate in education, an EdD, at the University of Delaware when she was 55. Her dissertation, Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs, was published under the name Jill Jacobs-Biden. You can read the first 17 pages here.
I should have realized that she wasn’t a medical doctor since she hadn’t spoken out, at least not that I know of, about Covid-19 from a medical perspective.
Still when I hear the “Dr.” in front of someone’s name depending on the context the first thing I think of is that they are a physician.
Afterword
In the psychotherapy profession where there are licensed practitioners at the masters level (I have an MSW) and those with PhD and MD degrees they almost always don’t publish with Dr. in front of their names. Rather they publish with their degree following their name. When they meet a patient they may or may not introduce themselves as doctor. If a psychiatrist decides to fly on an airplane and a woman goes into labor and is called to help, at the least they delivered a few babies when they did their rotation through obstetrics.