Dr. Biden’s Lesson: Runaway degree inflation reinforces the class divide.

City Journal ^ | Summer 2021 | Kay S. Hymowitz

[karpov]

Among the many eruptions of outrage that distracted us from the dread of the past year was one provoked in December by an 800-word Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D.” Written by prolific author and veteran wit Joseph Epstein, it mocked First Lady–to–Be Jill Biden for wanting to be called “Dr. Biden.” The honorific should be reserved for the kind of doctor who could save your life when your appendix bursts, he wrote, not a doctor of education or, as they are commonly known, an Ed.D.

Epstein touched a cultural nerve. A Biden administration spokesperson described the article as a “disgusting and sexist attack” and demanded an apology and a retraction. The Guardian, late-night host Stephen Colbert, and MSNBC all jumped in to defend the First Lady’s honor. Northwestern University, where Epstein taught for 30 years, still has a message on its website assuring visitors that his “misogynistic views” are not its problem, since Epstein hasn’t been a lecturer there since 2003. Social media added to the chorus: Dr. Biden “worked [her] rear end off for years to earn that,” tweeted Audrey Truschke, an associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University. Let her “shout it from the rooftops.”

The outrage was ephemeral but also revealing. Stuck in the stock framework of sexism and unduly reverent of academic title and prestige, Team Dr. was tone-deaf to the cultural and political moment. The controversy unfolded a mere four years after a presidential election that exposed an ominous social and economic chasm between college-educated and less diplomaed Americans. It coincided with a lame-duck president who “love[d] the poorly educated” rallying his base to help him undermine the results of an election that had not gone his way.

[pfflier]

It coincided with a lame-duck president who “love[d] the poorly educated”

Really?? Stereotyping is a sign of prejudice, a key element of racism. I'll bet my MBA on that.

[monkeyshine]

Dr. Bill Cosby

[doorgunner69]

Most soft science and liberal arts degrees seem to be awarded based on class attendance and time.

[PghBaldy]

The left talks about “Dr. King” too. It used to be the title “Reverend” was revered on the left too.

[Tell It Right]

Agreed. If you exclude MBA's and similar degrees from "liberal arts" (which are lumped into that category simply because it's hard to categorize business majors as "science"), I'd say almost all liberal arts degrees are worth little. Except, of course, for the ones used as stepping stones to get into a good grad school program (i.e. law school).

Judging from most of the PhD's I've worked with (of the ones in liberal arts), I learned a lot more useful information getting my BS in computer science.

[DeweyCA]

Higher education has become a racket. My long-time friend, who retried two years ago from being a U of MN history professor, was so glad to get out. He said it had become a “zoo.”

[Beagle8U]

“Dr. Biden “worked [her] rear end off for years to earn that,” tweeted Audrey Truschke, an associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University.”

Yup, she is a pubic school teacher with a PHD Milk-n-Cookies.

Just a step up from the one you get with 2 box tops and a postage paid envelope.

[libstripper]

I like your remark about law school. I graduated from law school in 1967 and undergrad in 1965 with a major in history and a minor split between political science and economics. At the tine, I joked about it, saying I knew my undergraduate degree was useless unless I went to trade school (law school) afterwards. It all worked out because I’d planned on becoming a lawyer since I was about 12 years old.

[Tell It Right]

Thanks. I'm sure there are a few other grad school required careers for which a liberal arts undergrad is a good stepping-stone to get into. But few people are like you and me who pick a career first, then pick an education plan to take us to the career.

The real criticism of liberal arts degrees should focus on lack of career planning, not so much the liberal arts degree itself. Yes, most liberal arts degrees are as worthless as the critics claim, at least for people who don't do any career planning first. Most people who get a good BS degree (like I did) are people who chose that science or math discipline with a career in mind.

At least that's MHO as a software engineer.

[5th MEB]

I knew a lady (a friend of my wife) who got a “doctorate in education”, can’t remember the university now but I know it was in Southern California (a big name one).

She had dinner with my wife and I ONCE; because I have a tendency to occasionally express myself with a profanity or two, she tried to convince my wife that I was possessed by a demon and needed an exorcism.

That word ONCE was important because my wife told me later that she was NEVER coming back.

I guess she was just so sensitive that a little bit of harsh language required that I get exorcised.

Still laugh about it when I think about it.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Did you ask her if she had a pussyhat?

[Graybeard58]

Most soft science and liberal arts degrees seem to be awarded based on class attendance and time.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Almost word for word what my daughter said. She has the same degree that “doctor” Jill has.

If you call my daughter “doctor”, you’d better duck.

[bert]

As Devil’s advocate, how can one career plan if they have no clue about what they want to do?

I can’t cite solid references but believe most BA’s end up in jobs that were a series of unplanned opportunities and accidents.

I cite my niece who graduated with a degree in fine arts. From her job as motel clerk, she got a job sculpting vines in a chimpanzee exhibit at the zoo. She had experience and moved all the way across the country to another zoo where she sculpted not only vines and plants but rocks in an artificial stream.

She met her husband who was a draftsman and followed him to Alaska where they were married by her brother who in an act of kindness got an online ordination

She now is employed as a writer on some environmental magazine antagonizing the oil companies

[Tell It Right]

Excellent point on it being impossible to career plan ahead of time the random opportunities that'll come your way in the future (the bulk of your post).

But I want to point out your first sentence: having no clue about what they want to do. That is the rub. That's a lack of ambition. Prior generations of teenagers had most of their careers already figured out by the time they finished high school. Be they blue collar workers or white collar workers. If we could somehow channel the ambition of prior generations and combine it with the opportunities we have today, we wouldn't have an "epidemic" (as some Dims call it) of college debt.

And if you walk down a path of lucrative Career A and see an opportunity to switch over to Career B that's fine too. I told my now grown "kids" I won't cry for any of them who have no ambition and spend none of their childhood thinking about their future plans. Before I finished 11th grade I had my career picked out and had asked people in the industry what kind of training it'd take to get where they were. And it was my 3rd career choice after I'd already researched my favorite career option then another before ruling them both out and settling on what I thought was the 3rd best career option. If I can do that by the time I finished 11th grade -- years before Algore invented the internet -- don't tell me today's young adults can't do the same by the time they finish 12th grade.