About That Doctorate. . .

 

Well, we can summarily reject this candidate.

I think you should reconsider.

What? Her thesis is one sentence: “Me a docter.”

But it is very well researched.

What!?!  She misspelled ‘doctor.’

You obviously didn’t look at the footnotes.

Footnotes?  It’s one sentence!

Yes. There are 132 notes. Note one is a copy of her marriage certificate.  The rest are descriptions of every grant and payment to the university from the US government.  You should pay special attention to note 22.

Hmmmm…On further consideration, I think you’re correct. Doctorate granted.  I do have one question, though.  What are we going to do if someone wants to look at her thesis?

No one’s going to do that.

Still, if someone looks at it, we could be in trouble.

Okay, okay.  Get a paper from one of your other students and slap her name on it.  No one will be the wiser.

But I just teach undergraduates.

So what?  It’s a doctorate of education, who cares?

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  1. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Forty=plus years ago, Henry Kissinger put the word out to call him “mister”, not “Doctor”. A class act, especially considering that he did a helluva lot more to earn the doctorate than she did. 

    • #1
  2. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    • #2
  3. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    She also can’t pronounce bodegas

    And since when are crappy little convenience stores a source of cultural pride?  These exist because supermarkets refuse to open in minority neighborhoods due to the higher crime rates.

    And if you are going to refer to an entire people group as tacos, why limit them to breakfast tacos?

    Say what you will about the crack and the whores, Hunter really is the smartest one in that family.

    • #3
  4. Mark Alexander Inactive
    Mark Alexander
    @MarkAlexander

    Anyone who has to argue to be called a doctor isn’t a doctor.

    • #4
  5. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates.

    • #5
  6. Mark Alexander Inactive
    Mark Alexander
    @MarkAlexander

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates.

    There are a few of us who can do and teach. That’s why they will never let me teach in govt schools.

    • #6
  7. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Kyle Smith has looked into her thesis & it is a laugher:

    “My friends, I have read this document in its entirety…..

    Gene Simmons has a better claim to be a Doctor of Love than Jill Biden to be a Doctor of Education; after all, Simmons has spent a lifetime demonstrating mastery of his field. As for Biden, she has spent a lot of time teaching remedial English to slow learners in community colleges. Which is like being a rock musician who’s in a bar band. That plays covers. At mixers. Held in assisted-living facilities. Mrs. Biden’s dissertation emits so much noxious methane the EPA should regulate it, Greta Thunberg should denounce it,”

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/jill-bidens-doctorate-is-garbage-because-her-dissertation-is-garbage/

    “To call Jill Biden’s dissertation thin gruel is an insult to gruel….

    Mrs. Biden’s only original research consists of interviews with two — that’s right, two — ex-students and a few colleagues at Delaware Technical Community College, where she used to teach, plus the results of a vacuous questionnaire she wrote that was returned by about 150 people who worked or studied there….

    The typos and other miscues begin in the second sentence of Mrs. Biden’s introduction (“The needs of the student population are often undeserved [sic], resulting in a student drop-out rate of almost one third”) unless you count the table of contents, in which Biden misspells the word “questionnaire.””

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/jill-bidens-garbage-dissertation-explained/

    • #7
  8. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Mark Alexander (View Comment):

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates.

    There are a few of us who can do and teach. That’s why they will never let me teach in govt schools.

    Been there. In the 1990s I taught computer science at a community college. I was the highest-rated adjunct at the campus. The administration sent the students with difficulty learning to take my classes. (They were sane. It was a community college.) Then the accreditation board “raised” standards requiring a masters plus 18 hours graduate credit in the field you were teaching. (I had 12.) So I was no longer qualified and had to leave. The school cried harder than I did.

    • #8
  9. WiesbadenJake Coolidge
    WiesbadenJake
    @WiesbadenJake

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates.

    As a newly retired public schoolteacher (chemistry & physics) I always smile when I see that statement. I am not offended by it, I think students would very much benefit from teachers having to have experience in fields related to their teaching area, at least in the STEM fields. I was fortunate, I had 14 years professional experience in an ancillary medical profession (cardiopulmonary technology) that included two national board exams prior to entering teaching. Feedback from my students through the years is that the ability to related what I was teaching to its practical uses in the medical field context was quite helpful for them. It provided me with some credibility that perhaps other teachers did not have because of lack of life experience.

    I was fortunate, two of the three school districts I taught in had great parental support and school boards and administrations that were supportive of student academic success in traditional rather than politically trendy ways. Makes all the difference.

    My university STEM courses were great; my education courses were a necessary hurdle but only two, looking back, out of many, added value. The rest were simply money consumers and taught things that I had to unlearn quickly regarding classroom management. When students ask why I switched to teaching I told them I needed time back; I was on-call sometimes 3-4 evenings and nights per week (from 1600 to 0800); I walked in the house one evening after work and my 3 y/o son waved goodbye to me–almost every time we were doing something as a family I would get a call (carried a radio back before cell phones). Also, it was great fun to work with the living rather than the dying, though I learned much from the dying…

    I have benign feelings regarding education doctorates–depends on the individual. Interestingly, my students  who have gone on to doctorates in STEM fields other than physicians prefer not to be addressed as Doctor.

    • #9
  10. JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery Coolidge
    JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery
    @JosePluma

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    She also can’t pronounce bodegas

    And since when are crappy little convenience stores a source of cultural pride? These exist because supermarkets refuse to open in minority neighborhoods due to the higher crime rates.

    Supermarkets would love to go into New York, but the city government won’t let them. 

    • #10
  11. JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery Coolidge
    JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery
    @JosePluma

    Mark Alexander (View Comment):

    Anyone who has to argue to be called a doctor isn’t a doctor.

    My brother and my mother-in-law both have doctorates (neither in education).  I have never heard either of them require being  called ‘doctor.’   My wife and I obviously work with and occasionally socialize with a lot of ‘real’ doctors.  None of them insist on being referred to as ‘doctor’ outside of a professional setting.

    The constant demands that we use the title just shows her insecurity.  Her actual public performances indicates she has a lot to be insecure about. 

    • #11
  12. Mad Gerald Coolidge
    Mad Gerald
    @Jose

    Don’t forget the ringing endorsement by Whoopi Goldberg.  “She’d make a hell of a surgeon general.”

    • #12
  13. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Alex the Chick told a story about being at an event with Senator (?) Biden shortly after Jill received her doctorate. Alex caveated it with all the disclaimers that she thinks Biden is a horrible person, the doctorate is flimsy, etc. She said though that Joe was beaming at the event. He was so proud of Jill and was telling everyone about her accomplishment. 

    • #13
  14. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Back in school, I took a joint College of Engineering/College of Education course on computer-assisted instruction, partly because it allowed an account to a particular computer system that I wanted access to, and partly because there was a particular coed taking the course that I wanted access to. (Having more than one objective is efficient.

    The hard part wasn’t getting through the class. The hard part was getting Larissa through the class.

    • #14
  15. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Back in school, I took a joint College of Engineering/College of Education course on computer-assisted instruction, partly because it allowed an account to a particular computer system that I wanted access to, and partly because there was a particular coed taking the course that I wanted access to. (Having more than one objective is efficient.)

    The hard part wasn’t getting through the class. The hard part was getting Larissa through the class.

    EDITED to add the point. Larissa wasn’t the only Education major to complete the course, but the field had been whittled down to a handful of those who started it.

    • #15
  16. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    The only people with an education doctorate who get to be called “doctor” are high school principals. 

    I have a whopping 12 graduate credits in education (I taught at a private school and some of us had to be offered up to the purveyors of deep stupid for the school to be accredited.)  It was revealing.  First, I learned that whatever lame intellectual fads swept college campuses ten years before became de rigueur in ed schools.  Nowadays, the stupid appears in the ed curriculum almost right away.  Second, there were a lot of people training to be teachers who could not pass most high school classes where I taught.  

    My fellow victim was in a class for English teachers.  Students were directed to each spontaneously make up some poetic verse.  When it was his turn he responded “Tiger, tiger burning bright in the forests of the night.”  The teacher thought that was wonderfully creative as did most of the class.  He said that only two or three recognized it–the few rolling their eyes and chuckling.  

    I was almost kicked out of another class for politely correcting the prof’s use of Leibniz’s theory of perception (which he had reduced to a flat wrong bumper sticker notion that that perception is somehow the author of being).  I could have name-dropped my Metaphysics prof at Georgetown but instead responded as if tout le monde were conversant in Leibniz’s philosophy and his rejection of materialist explanations of perception.

    Superficial, barely Cliff Notes-level mastery of important works and general laziness seemed to be the departmental norm.  It is almost as if there were an entire program to persuade limited, badly educated people that they were actually smart.  And damn if wokeness does not fit that bill big time. An education degree is not much better than whatever inspirational trinket the Wizard of Oz might pull from his bag.

     

    • #16
  17. Jim McConnell Member
    Jim McConnell
    @JimMcConnell

    JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery (View Comment):

    Mark Alexander (View Comment):

    Anyone who has to argue to be called a doctor isn’t a doctor.

    My brother and my mother-in-law both have doctorates (neither in education). I have never heard either of them require being called ‘doctor.’ My wife and I obviously work with and occasionally socialize with a lot of ‘real’ doctors. None of them insist on being referred to as ‘doctor’ outside of a professional setting.

    The constant demands that we use the title just shows her insecurity. Her actual public performances indicates she has a lot to be insecure about.

    The pseudos who insist upon being addressed as Doctor should be required to wear a stethoscope around their shoulders at all times.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • #17
  18. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    She also can’t pronounce bodegas

    And since when are crappy little convenience stores a source of cultural pride? 

    I just want to say that bodegas and/or bogedahs are really great and I don’t want to lose my job. Evidently a guy moved to NYC and was upset that he couldn’t buy food from someplace clean and that checks expiration dates. He could have left out the f-bombs, but he kind of has a point.

    • #18
  19. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    WiesbadenJake (View Comment):

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates.

    As a newly retired public schoolteacher (chemistry & physics) I always smile when I see that statement. I am not offended by it, I think students would very much benefit from teachers having to have experience in fields related to their teaching area, at least in the STEM fields. I was fortunate, I had 14 years professional experience in an ancillary medical profession (cardiopulmonary technology) that included two national board exams prior to entering teaching. Feedback from my students through the years is that the ability to related what I was teaching to its practical uses in the medical field context was quite helpful for them. It provided me with some credibility that perhaps other teachers did not have because of lack of life experience.

    I was fortunate, two of the three school districts I taught in had great parental support and school boards and administrations that were supportive of student academic success in traditional rather than politically trendy ways. Makes all the difference.

    My university STEM courses were great; my education courses were a necessary hurdle but only two, looking back, out of many, added value. The rest were simply money consumers and taught things that I had to unlearn quickly regarding classroom management. When students ask why I switched to teaching I told them I needed time back; I was on-call sometimes 3-4 evenings and nights per week (from 1600 to 0800); I walked in the house one evening after work and my 3 y/o son waved goodbye to me–almost every time we were doing something as a family I would get a call (carried a radio back before cell phones). Also, it was great fun to work with the living rather than the dying, though I learned much from the dying…

    I have benign feelings regarding education doctorates–depends on the individual. Interestingly, my students who have gone on to doctorates in STEM fields other than physicians prefer not to be addressed as Doctor.

    I used to tell that joke when I was an adjunct.  I enjoyed teaching a lot, and was the best instructor in my department, but as I said, that (and 20 years experience working with computers at the time) did not trump the six hours of CSCE credits I lacked. They ended up replacing me with an ABD out of grad school who was a mediocre instructor.  But, unlike me he was qualified.

    • #19
  20. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    WiesbadenJake (View Comment):

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Last I checked, those in the college of education had the lowest averages on standardized tests.

    Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates.

    As a newly retired public schoolteacher (chemistry & physics) I always smile when I see that statement. I am not offended by it, I think students would very much benefit from teachers having to have experience in fields related to their teaching area, at least in the STEM fields. I was fortunate, I had 14 years professional experience in an ancillary medical profession (cardiopulmonary technology) that included two national board exams prior to entering teaching. Feedback from my students through the years is that the ability to related what I was teaching to its practical uses in the medical field context was quite helpful for them. It provided me with some credibility that perhaps other teachers did not have because of lack of life experience.

    I was fortunate, two of the three school districts I taught in had great parental support and school boards and administrations that were supportive of student academic success in traditional rather than politically trendy ways. Makes all the difference.

    My university STEM courses were great; my education courses were a necessary hurdle but only two, looking back, out of many, added value. The rest were simply money consumers and taught things that I had to unlearn quickly regarding classroom management. When students ask why I switched to teaching I told them I needed time back; I was on-call sometimes 3-4 evenings and nights per week (from 1600 to 0800); I walked in the house one evening after work and my 3 y/o son waved goodbye to me–almost every time we were doing something as a family I would get a call (carried a radio back before cell phones). Also, it was great fun to work with the living rather than the dying, though I learned much from the dying…

    I have benign feelings regarding education doctorates–depends on the individual. Interestingly, my students who have gone on to doctorates in STEM fields other than physicians prefer not to be addressed as Doctor.

    I used to telll that joke when I was an adjunct. I enjoyed teaching a lot, and was the best instructor in my department, but as I said, that (and 20 years experience working with computers at the time) did not trump the missing six hours of CSCE credits I lacked. They ended up replacing me with an ABD out of grad school who was a mediocre instructor. But, unlike me he was qualified.

    William James wrote a good essay on this silliness called “The PhD Octopus.”

    • #20
  21. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    Just another elitist with an intellect a mile wide and an inch deep. 

    • #21
  22. Rick Banyan Member
    Rick Banyan
    @RickBanyan

    Normally I wouldn’t bother to respond, but I take offense at what I consider a cheap shot at teachers in general and doctorates in Education in particular; yeah, @Seawriter, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates,” is a cheap shot. My mother has a PhD in Education from Claremont Grad, is very intelligent, widely read, was a deeply knowledgeable and inspiring teacher for decades, and spoke three languages (her French is gone and her Spanish is much decrease since her strokes). On the other hand, the credentialing classes I took were, ah, not that helpful and I think that a doctorate in Education is no guarantee that the holder knows anything useful.

    I see teaching as its own field—not something you do when you can’t do the “real” thing—and a calling. In my experience, people either have a skill for teaching or they don’t, but that skill can be improved by experience, mentoring, and maybe, at least marginally, by education classes. One final point, yes, those who can, do, but they may or may not be any good at teaching.

    • #22
  23. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Rick Banyan (View Comment):

    Normally I wouldn’t bother to respond, but I take offense at what I consider a cheap shot at teachers in general and doctorates in Education in particular; yeah, @ Seawriter, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates,” is a cheap shot. My mother has a PhD in Education from Claremont Grad, is very intelligent, widely read, was a deeply knowledgeable and inspiring teacher for decades, and spoke three languages (her French is gone and her Spanish is much decrease since her strokes). On the other hand, the credentialing classes I took were, ah, not that helpful and I think that a doctorate in Education is no guarantee that the holder knows anything useful.

    I see teaching as its own field—not something you do when you can’t do the “real” thing—and a calling. In my experience, people either have a skill for teaching or they don’t, but that skill can be improved by experience, mentoring, and maybe, at least marginally, by education classes. One final point, yes, those who can, do, but they may or may not be any good at teaching.

    The military can turn out instructors with a 90-day course.  The whole education school thing is a farce and a scam.  It focuses on teaching “techniques” and not mastering the subject you are teaching.  Two of my best professors at the University of Michigan lacked PhDs.  One had only a baccalaureate degree.  Yet they invented the specialties in which they taught. Texas eliminated undergraduate education degrees in the 1980s. You had to get a BS or a BA in a standard major with a minor in teaching. I think the state’s educators were better for it.

    We homeschooled our three. All are engineers. One is a manager of the pipeline division at a civil engineering company. A second is on track to be a technical fellow at Raytheon. Neither has PhDs. So riddle me this? If professional teachers are  so great why are they regularly outperformed by homeschooling? 

    Teaching at its core is a trade.  It is not a noble calling. It’s just another job. And it seems a lot of educators are pretentious snobs.

     

    • #23
  24. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Rick Banyan (View Comment):
    My mother has a PhD in Education from Claremont Grad

    Is that really a PhD rather than an EdD?  

    • #24
  25. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    Rick Banyan (View Comment):

    Normally I wouldn’t bother to respond, but I take offense at what I consider a cheap shot at teachers in general and doctorates in Education in particular; yeah, @ Seawriter, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates,” is a cheap shot. My mother has a PhD in Education from Claremont Grad, is very intelligent, widely read, was a deeply knowledgeable and inspiring teacher for decades, and spoke three languages (her French is gone and her Spanish is much decrease since her strokes). On the other hand, the credentialing classes I took were, ah, not that helpful and I think that a doctorate in Education is no guarantee that the holder knows anything useful.

    I see teaching as its own field—not something you do when you can’t do the “real” thing—and a calling. In my experience, people either have a skill for teaching or they don’t, but that skill can be improved by experience, mentoring, and maybe, at least marginally, by education classes. One final point, yes, those who can, do, but they may or may not be any good at teaching.

    Rick, you make a good point. Teaching is like any other profession there are good and competent teachers and then there are incompetent teachers. There are of course parents who are involved with their children’s schooling and parents that see school as nothing more than a babysitter.

     

     

    • #25
  26. JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery Coolidge
    JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery
    @JosePluma

    Rick Banyan (View Comment):

    Normally I wouldn’t bother to respond, but I take offense at what I consider a cheap shot at teachers in general and doctorates in Education in particular; yeah, @ Seawriter, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach get Education Doctorates,” is a cheap shot. My mother has a PhD in Education from Claremont Grad, is very intelligent, widely read, was a deeply knowledgeable and inspiring teacher for decades, and spoke three languages (her French is gone and her Spanish is much decrease since her strokes). On the other hand, the credentialing classes I took were, ah, not that helpful and I think that a doctorate in Education is no guarantee that the holder knows anything useful.

    I see teaching as its own field—not something you do when you can’t do the “real” thing—and a calling. In my experience, people either have a skill for teaching or they don’t, but that skill can be improved by experience, mentoring, and maybe, at least marginally, by education classes. One final point, yes, those who can, do, but they may or may not be any good at teaching.

    I’m sorry I offended you, but I’m not “attacking” teachers.  I’m poking fun at a member of a corrupt political family and a specific organization that has been corrupted by them in order to gain political largesse.

    • #26
  27. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Rick Banyan (View Comment):
    My mother has a PhD in Education from Claremont Grad

    Is that really a PhD rather than an EdD?

    I’m not denying that there is such a thing as a PhD in education. I have a vague recollection that I may have heard of it before.  But if there really is such a thing, I’m kind of curious as to how universities distinguish it from an EdD. 

    • #27
  28. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    But if there really is such a thing, I’m kind of curious as to how universities distinguish it from an EdD. 

    It’s much harder to get and gets a lot more respect. “Doctor” Jill’s is not a Ph. D.

    • #28
  29. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Arahant (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    But if there really is such a thing, I’m kind of curious as to how universities distinguish it from an EdD.

    It’s much harder to get and gets a lot more respect. “Doctor” Jill’s is not a Ph. D.

    I knew that “Doctor” Jill didn’t have a PhD.  I suppose I could google for the differences in requirements, but I’m lazy and like to have other people do my work for me. 

     

    • #29
  30. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    I knew that “Doctor” Jill didn’t have a PhD.  I suppose I could google for the differences in requirements, but I’m lazy and like to have other people do my work for me. 

    You’d make a great candidate for an Ed. D., then.

    • #30
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