There seems to be a wider use of the term "professor" among our own schools than is customary in non-Adventist institutions. Is there any rule to guide us as to when a person should be called professor?
Perhaps the statement is true that we use the title "professor" until, as a little girl said of the Grand Canyon, it is worn down to the fabric. Inexperienced instructors of elementary classes are often improperly called "professor" the same as are heads of college departments. Men who have retired from teaching many years ago and have worked in other lines since then, men who are just beginning their work in one of our church schools, academies, or colleges, and men who have given their lives to teaching and are now heads of college departments, are too frequently all addressed alike. This title has been used so widely and indiscriminately that a General Conference twenty years ago voted:
"That the use of the title 'professor' be discouraged except for heads of colleges and college departments, principals of twelve-grade academies who hold a college degree, and persons of equivalent attainments who have held such positions ; also, we suggest that heads of colleges and academies may be properly called Mr. or either President or Principal, as the case may be."—General Conference Session Minutes, 1918.
Perhaps if this simple statement were followed in its true spirit, the situation could be relieved. Oftentimes it is a real distinction to be called "Mister," and the students in some of our greatest American universities address in that way their very learned teachers who hold many degrees, and who may be heads of departments.
Contrary to some too-oft-repeated and unfounded generalizations, our teachers are humble people and receive small compensation for their labors. But they do deserve respect, consistent with the scripture—"honor to whom honor" is due. It would make even the beginner feel better if the title "professor" were actually reserved for persons of proper academic rank. He would look forward to the time when the title would be the reward of many years of study and the sign of recognition by his colleagues of his training, experience, and position.
W. Homer Teesdale [Associate Secretary, Department of Education.]
