Boiling Point Policy on Courtesy Titles
To our readers,
The Boiling Point has long held a policy on titles given to people that we quote, attribute, and write about. Out of respect, we give every staff member a courtesy title such as “Dr.,” “Rabbi,” Mr.” “Ms.” or “Mrs.” Since we refer to students by first name in our articles, it is important that adults are given the official title that they have day-to-day, just as students are called by their first names.
It is especially important we do this at a Jewish high school, where Judaic faculty almost always automatically have a courtesy title because they are rabbis.
If we did not give courtesy titles to everyone, then articles would look like this:
Rabbi David Stein and English teacher Michelle Crincoli gave a joint seminar last week on Jews in American literature. Rabbi Stein described Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer, and Crincoli talked about Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. The class was moderated by Dean of Students Jason Feld. Feld thanked Crincoli and Rabbi Stein for coming up with the idea and said he hoped that they would do more things like it.
As opposed to this, which gives both sides of the Shalhevet faculty a respectful title:
Rabbi David Stein and English teacher Ms. Michelle Crincoli gave a joint seminar last week on Jews in American literature. Rabbi Stein described Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer, and Ms. Crincoli talked about Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. The class was moderated by Dean of Students Mr. Jason Feld. Mr. Feld thanked Ms. Crincoli and Rabbi Stein for coming up with the idea and said he hoped that they would do more things like it.
To respect all faculty and staff equally, we write about people with the titles that they have.