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.
Witness the ludicrous spectacle of Whoopie Goldberg lauding Jill Biden, EdD, as a viable candidate for Surgeon 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.