What Am I Bid for This Fine EdD? To laugh at education “doctorates” is to miss the threat they pose.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | June 23, 2023 | Stanley K. Ridgley

[karpov]

The contretemps, two and a half years ago, over First Lady Jill Biden’s problematic degree and her too-earnest desire to be addressed as “Doctor” opened discussion about a problem in higher education that didn’t go quite far enough.

Just what is this “EdD,” and why is this chit so important to so many people—but only the people who clutch it tightly, even as they behave as if, at any moment, they may be found out?

It is impolite and sometimes impolitic to point out the clear and documented deficiencies of advanced degrees in “higher education,” of the people who teach in these programs, and of the folks who complete them. But this unnecessary extension of courtesy has had a predictably deleterious impact on the university in general.

Says cultural critic Roger Kimball, “It is generally understood, though seldom mentioned in polite society, that the less distinguished one’s academic institution, the more likely one will insist upon the honorific ‘Dr.’” And that’s the actual doctorate, not the EdD, which isn’t actually a “doctorate” in the same sense as, say, a PhD in physics or in quantum mechanics or even in economics or business. It’s little more than a me-too “certificate,” not far removed from the master’s degree in education, which isn’t really that far removed from the bachelor’s.

And yet, the uninitiated at times believe the EdD to be far more than it possibly could. Witness the ludicrous spectacle of television personality Whoopie Goldberg lauding Jill Biden, EdD, as a viable candidate for U.S. Surgeon General, seemingly unaware of the difference between the EdD and the MD.

[Liz]

Jill Biden’s Doctorate Is Garbage Because
Her University of Delaware Dissertation Is Garbage
Kyle Smith
December 16, 2020
https://news.yahoo.com/jill-biden-doctorate-garbage-because-212259558.html

Consider “Dr.” Jill Biden, who doesn’t even hold a Ph.D. but rather a lesser Ed.D., something of a joke in the academic world. President-elect Joe Biden once explained that his wife sought the degree purely for status reasons: “She said, ‘I was so sick of the mail coming to Sen. and Mrs. Biden. I wanted to get mail addressed to Dr. and Sen. Biden.’ That’s the real reason she got her doctorate,” Joe Biden has said.

Mrs. Biden wanted the credential for its own sake. As for its quality, well. She got it from the University of Delaware, whose ties to her husband, its most illustrious alumnus if you don’t count Joe Flacco, run so deep that it has a school of public policy named after him. That the University of Delaware would have rejected her 2006 dissertation as sloppy, poorly written, non-academic, and barely fit for a middle-school Social Studies classroom (all of which it is) when her husband had been representing its state in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades was about as likely as Tom Hagen telling Vito Corleone that his wife is a fat sow on payday.

The only risk to the University of Delaware was that it might strain its collective wrist in its rush to rubber-stamp her doctoral paper. Mrs. Biden could have turned in a quarter-a**ed excuse for a magazine article written at the level of Simple English Wikipedia and been heartily congratulated by the university for her towering mastery. Which is exactly what happened.

[dfwgator]

Jill is America’s Elena Ceausescu.

Elena Ceausescu: Greatest Scientist Ever — except she was a fraud
https://paperpile.com/blog/elena-ceausescu-scientist-fraud/

[Jamestown1630]

'...her too-earnest desire to be addressed as “Doctor”...'

I've worked around accomplished academics all of my life, and I've never known one who insisted on being called 'Doctor' or even made much of a point of it outside the University environment - unless they actually were medical doctors.

It's a small, tacky person who insists on this, especially for an Education Ph. D. and among the general public.

[jimwatx]

” First Lady Jill Biden’s problematic degree and her too-earnest desire to be addressed as “Doctor”

Seriously that entire family is just low level trash.

[choctaw man]

Just ask Woop Pee about Dr. Biden’s reputation as a top notch physician in D.C. :)

[bigbob]

The EdD is a scam, a low-hurdle “doctorate” designed to allow teachers who can’t teach a path to become administrators with much higher pay and less accountability for results.

[Da Coyote]

One would have to look long and hard to find more than one or two courses contained in any level of an ‘eddikashun’ degree that contains anything close to knowledge or scholarship.

And we see the results in our ‘publik skoolz’.

My apologies to the good and capable school teachers (not eddikators’) out there who are doing a good job...despite their degrees.

[Grampa Dave]

I have a good MBA, and most people I worked with and knew didn’t know that I had a Master’s degree.

Basically, the one and only time people, I didn’t know found out that I had a Master’s degree was after they told others and me to address them as Dr..

I replied, “No problem if you address me as Master based on my MBA.”

Most smiled and became semi human.

[2nd amendment mama]

Obviously, you’ve never been to a HBCU. They all use the “Dr” monicker.

[Starboard]

Nailed it!

[NorthMountain]

unless they actually were medical doctors.

That's also tacky.

Outside your workplace, in a purely social environment, your MD is even less impressive than a PhD in a real science discipline. Save the MD, PhD, PE, CPA, etc. for work where they belong.

[real saxophonist]

My dad was Professor Emeritus at Valdosta State in Georgia. He got a Doctor of Education from the Vanderbilt Peabody College in 1971. Back then, one had to do actual research to get a Doctorate.

He taught doctoral candidates how to do the research to get their own doctorates.

He and many of his colleagues were WWII veterans. It's a shame to see what the academic world has become.

[Jamestown1630]

I have no problem with people using it in the academic environment. I've worked for people who had Doctorates in the hard sciences, and I refused to call them by their first names even though most everyone else did. I felt it was important to set an example for the students to maintain that respect and distance - in that environment.

[Jamestown1630]

If I encountered my MD at a social event, I’d still refer to him as ‘Dr.’.

[Clutch Martin]

I have PhD... it’s out in the shed.

[bravo whiskey]

I am 70 years old and retired. I have a BS a plus 2 associate degrees in drafting and gfx. I have studied history since I could read 4 of my close friends have Masters in history and I considered getting one in Military History through Norwich. I could afford it but, after serious thought decided not too. I would not make friends as I would if it were in person and i already have enough hobbies. It was partly an ego thing. Given I volunteer teaching Russian history my friends agreed with my decision. Basically they said “You already know a lot of stuff. You do not need a degree to impress us.”

[Leaning Right]

I taught in public schools for decades, and ran into more than a few EdD‘s.

Some got the degree just to move up in the ranks. I have no problem with that.
But the majority of them were, as the article states, dangerous. Permit me to explain why, from my point of view.

Every discipline has an accepted body of knowledge. Every chemist agrees that the helium atom has two protons. Every historian agrees that George Washington was a general. Etc. There might be some disagreements around the edges. For example, historians might not agree on Washington being a good general.

There is, however, one exception to all this. There is literally no accepted body of knowledge in education. Literally anything goes. Say whatever pops into your head, pick up your degree, and then go run a school district.

I suffered through a long series of EdD superintendents who upended everything as soon as they took over. Brand new leader, brand new fad.

The spiral curriculum is best. Then no, it’s not.
Labs are valuable. Then no, they’re not.
On and on it went.

[Mermaid Girl]

“It’s a small, tacky person who insists on this, especially for an Education Ph. D. and among the general public.”

My friend, you hit the nail on the head. For the last four years, I’ve been persuing a teaching certificate in the state of Florida, and because I didn’t get education classes when I was in college (it’s a long story...) I was required to go to the local community college to get the necessary coursework.

Good gravy... the most arrogant, petty and stupid people in the education program INSISTED on being called Dr.

Now, not going to brag, but... one of my best friends is a highly respected eye doctor in Florida. He’s actually one of the best eye doctors on the east coast — but when I meet him for a check up, we catch up on what science fiction we’re reading, world politics, music — and he calls ME an intellectual and considers me on his level (which blows my mind, but I’ll take it.)

He’s the only guy I will trust with my eyes, and he just wants me to call him Sam.

But every idiot at the local junior college.. oh, you gotta kiss their butts and call them DOCTOR...

[NewHampshireDuo]

I just finished reading Ridgley's book Brutal Minds: The Dark World of Left-Wing Brainwashing in Our Universities.

He spends quite a bit of time on the EdDs and how they have damaged the university environment.