16 Year Old CEOs, What Has The World Come To?

Re:16 Year Old CEOs, What Has The World Come To? by scott_s on Tuesday November 03, 2009 @10:19AM (#919424)

If someone is calling grad students "Professor," then they are abusing the term. A grad student who is teaching is an instructor.

Something that I didn't appreciate until I was in grad school was that not all professors are even "Professor." Becoming a full professor is a big deal. An "Assistant Professor" is generally someone who has a tenure-track position, but does not have tenure yet. "Associate Professor" is for someone who has tenure. "Professor" is for someone who has tenure, and has contributed enough to the school through research and teaching to earn being a full professor.

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Re:16 Year Old CEOs, What Has The World Come To? by yummyfajitas on Tuesday November 03, 2009 @12:54PM (#919833)

The person teaching the class can be legitimately called "professor". It signifies their position as "that guy teaching the class", not their academic rank.

Similarly, "that guy commanding the ship" is called "captain" regardless of actual rank [1].

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Re:16 Year Old CEOs, What Has The World Come To? by scott_s on Tuesday November 03, 2009 @01:18PM (#919887)

I just checked the dictionary and Wikipedia. While both allow for "that guy teaching the class" to be considered a professor, that doesn't seem to be the standard custom. Both stressed the formality of the title, which is the custom I'm familiar with.

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