People and titles

Long ago I had a high school teacher who coached minor sport. Regular students could call him Mr. Smith but the students he coached were required to call him Coach Smith. I forget his real name, it isn't important. The important part was that this guy loved the title of coach and forced the students to call him that, as if the title made him important.

This particular teacher wasn't the worst teacher I have ever had, as a teacher he was okay. As a person he was a shmuck. A braggart, a blowhard, somebody who thought he was important and couldn't understand why people didn't treat him as royalty. The students he coached said he was an ass and a horrible coach, but he loved the title.

I have never understood the fascination people have with titles. Titles are just words, they don't make you important. Albert Einstein was a genius in his own right, he didn't require people to call him Mr. Genius Einstein. Yet I see people all the time who love to hear people repeat their title to them. Love to hear people call them sir or mister. I wonder where their parents went wrong and why they never learned self esteem.