Bret Devereaux

Some instructors prefer to try to flatten the relationship by avoiding titles which put emphasis on the difference. And certainly, were I teaching graduate students (ah, happy dreams) I'd see the sense in that. Graduate students are junior colleagues.

But I find in undergraduate teaching (and also with the general public on matters where my degree pertains) the distinction that 'Dr.' provides is valuable. After all, the entire reason I am the teacher and they are the students is that I am the Dr. and they are not.

And I don't see a good reason, myself, to 'play pretend' that we are 'all learning together' when that isn't really what we are generally doing. Honestly, the illusion of a non-hierarchical class can hardly survive the first exam anyway.

I'm also aware that the whole bit about titles is different for balding white men (read: me) than everyone else. It is *easy* for white male instructors to dispense with titles, because society accords us respect anyway.

And so in some ways I think that the folks who drop Dr. - in my own experience, almost universally white male instructors - are unintentionally (to be clear, I think they have good motives) benefiting from a privilege their non-white or non-male colleagues do not have.

Consequently - if I can sound *truly* out of touch - maintaining some vestige of the 'dignity of the degree' and using the title with undergraduates might help give cover to non-white and non-male instructors to do the same as a way of asserting their authority in the classroom.

One thing I will say, you were an awesome instructor. We were lucky to have you, and it's nice to see how you feel about these issues. Not to be a "suck up" but truly, your class was really awesome.

Means the world to hear you say it, truly.