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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

Posted on 06/23/2023 2:21:33 PM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: twocents
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To: karpov

Whoopi’s ain’t bright enough to understand


21 posted on 06/23/2023 3:14:26 PM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: Mermaid Girl

I can’t remember the actual process to becoming a public school teacher in the late 1950s when I first went to school; I think a lot of teachers back then actually promised to teach for a number of years to get their education free or partly free.

But any one of those teachers had the equivalent of a far higher degree than public teachers do now. It’s heartbreaking to see what happens to most kids in public education today, when I remember the kind of people we had.


22 posted on 06/23/2023 3:15:24 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Mermaid Girl

I hardly ever use my formal title of doctor particularly outside of clinical setting. I had a wonderful mentor in fellowship who said we weee colleagues and on a first name basis. And that extended to the nurses. I ascribe to the same practice.


23 posted on 06/23/2023 3:27:18 PM PDT by gas_dr (Conditions of Socratic debate: Intelligence, Candor, and Good Will)
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To: karpov
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.

I stopped long ago being polite about all Ed degrees. They are worthless pieces of paper to go along with worthless people. There is no politeness when dealing with the truth.

24 posted on 06/23/2023 3:27:54 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Delay Trump’s trial, delay. Elect Trump President. Trump pardons himself.)
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To: Liz

“”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.”

Huh? He’s nuts. If someone wanted their mail to address them as “Dr”, they don’t need a degree to make that happen. Not as if the Post Office or anyone else requires proof when filling out contact or shipping info online.


25 posted on 06/23/2023 3:30:59 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: gas_dr

Except you have already discredited yourself via numerous Covid comments that are now proven to be ri-donk-ulous.
Now get back to your own self-affirming aggrandizement.


26 posted on 06/23/2023 3:33:09 PM PDT by Honest Nigerian
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To: karpov

I have a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard. I don’t have to insist on being called “Doctor”, because everyone of my professional associates calls me that, unless I say not to.

Jill biden, with her EdD and her garbage, ungrammatical thesis, should NOT be called Dr., obviously!!!!


27 posted on 06/23/2023 3:50:56 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: Jamestown1630

It’s a GARBAGE EdD—NOT a PhD!!!!


28 posted on 06/23/2023 3:52:45 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: karpov

Meanwhile, DR. Rand Paul is a REAL Doctor, as is his father, and nobody in the press ever refers to either of them as “Dr.”


29 posted on 06/23/2023 3:52:46 PM PDT by left that other site (Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.)
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To: real saxophonist

Forgot to add, he never referred to himself as “Doctor”.


30 posted on 06/23/2023 3:59:43 PM PDT by real saxophonist (Hoplophobia will never be in the DSM, because the DSM is written by hoplophobes.)
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To: Honorary Serb

You don’t need to yell!


31 posted on 06/23/2023 4:03:03 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Jamestown1630

I worked with many young freshly graduate engineering and science PhDs. Only a few demanded to be called Doctor, but only for a few weeks or a month or so. Then they were over it.

However, The EdDs in the training and document control departments DEMANDED it forever. Most couldn’t utter a complete sentence.


32 posted on 06/23/2023 4:18:29 PM PDT by Agatsu77
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To: karpov

Victor Hanson often repeats that EVERY bad policy idea in America originated at some university, the same universities grinding out these useless people with their useless degrees that eventually harm us all, especially when they are put in charge of indoctrinating our kids.


33 posted on 06/23/2023 4:53:24 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: Jamestown1630

I’ll PM you the saga of my education and my current odyssey to become a teacher. It’s “cringe” to use the parlance of my middle school students.

It’s sad, because many of my hard-left colleagues are incredibly nice people who mean well, but their political views are just beyond idiotic.

Thankfully, we live and work in a very right-leaning county in a currently right leaning state (DeSantisland!) and many of the parents in our district are aggressively right leaning and involved in their kids educations. The bs indoctrination is stymied, thankfully.

But the hatred many of my colleagues have for the parents is disgusting... and because I don’t look or act like the standard right winger (in their minds — I’m a former punk rocker with weird hair, strange taste in movies and I *seem* to them like *one* of them, they just unload a lot of chilling stuff to me.)

I’m glad they’re somewhat defanged.


34 posted on 06/23/2023 5:02:12 PM PDT by Mermaid Girl
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To: Honest Nigerian

Nice to see I still love totally rent free in your head.
Hahahahahaha


35 posted on 06/23/2023 5:23:56 PM PDT by gas_dr (Conditions of Socratic debate: Intelligence, Candor, and Good Will)
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To: karpov
Excellent article and yes, I did click through to read the entire article (in a most un-Freeperlike manner).

All this diversity and inclusiveness has rendered most college degrees and all the alphabet soup titles and certifications that go with them, meaningless.

Standards get dropped in order to graduate as many students as possible, enriching the colleges and flooding the workplaces with inadequate employees who do not even begin to measure up to the lofty resumes with the impressive academic credentials that got them hired in the first place.

Case in point, I have a personal experience that goes back some 25 years. It was the late 1990s and high tech was hungry for certified professionals.

The company I worked for at the time decided that they wanted all their technical people, including managers (which I was at the time), to have some "alphabet soup" certifications so that they could be printed on our business cards and put on our email signatures and whatnot. All to impress our clients and would-be clients and show them they were working with certified professionals (we were certified all right!).

So I signed up for a $10,000 night course for MCSE certification on Windows NT 4.0 at Boston University that my company mostly reimbursed me for. Mind you, I was a manager at the time and really had no need for any of this. It was all about having that MCSE badge to flash about and impress clients with on sales calls...EVEN OUR MANAGERS ARE CERTIFIED!

I was the very definition of a "paper MCSE". After nine months of night school, writing installation scripts, learning about what RAID backup systems are all about and a thousand other things I've long forgotten, it was time to take the exams and get certified...

To study for the exams (I think there were six of them in total), I collected a bookshelf worth of EXAM CRAM books and other study guides. Basically, I memorized the answers for any conceivable question that might pop up on the exams (all multiple choice) without necessarily understanding the underlying technology behind them.

Once I got that certification, I went back to my management job and requested a set of business cards with the coveted "Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer" printed under my name. Had I ever taken a technical job based solely on my MCSE, I would have been as lost as Joe Biden on an empty stage.

So yes, that story from 25 years ago illustrates perfectly the fraud behind these phony-baloney EdD "doctorate" degrees today - complete with AI assisted dissertation!

I'll call these people "doctors" but they better call me "engineer" in return!

Case in point, I have a personal example. Some 25 years ago, the company I worked for

36 posted on 06/23/2023 5:56:12 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (5,301,904 Truth | 86,921,174 Twitter)
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To: Mermaid Girl

Sure.


37 posted on 06/23/2023 6:40:43 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Taxman

ping


38 posted on 06/23/2023 9:04:33 PM PDT by Taxman (SAVE AMERICA! VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2023 AND 2024!)
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To: Liz

Bookmark. Crooked Jill.


39 posted on 06/23/2023 9:30:51 PM PDT by NetAddicted (MAGA2024)
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To: dfwgator

Tucker Carlson read drjill’s dissertation......claims she’s illiterate.


40 posted on 06/23/2023 10:20:06 PM PDT by Liz (Vox Populi, Vox Dei (voice of the people is the vo.ice of God))
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