When is a Dr Not a Dr? By James Reed
Here is yet another university cancellation story, where an academic makes the mistake of thinking he has free speech, but of course, does not.
“The author of an opinion essay that criticized references to Jill Biden, the wife of media-declared president-elect Joe Biden, as a "Dr." was summarily canceled from his associations with Northwestern University.
Joseph Epstein, an author who was previously a lecturer at Northwestern, argued in an essay for the Wall Street Journal that Jill Biden should not receive the honorary title because her doctorate is neither in medicine nor science, but in education.
In his essay — which was titled, "Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D." — Epstein wrote:
Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the "Dr." before your name? "Dr. Jill Biden" sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic. Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title "Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students' Needs." A wise man once said that no one should call himself "Dr." unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.
After all, Epstein went on to argue, the process of earning a Ph.D. is not as strenuous as it once was, therefore it is not deserving of the same prestige.
"The Ph.D. may once have held prestige, but that has been diminished by the erosion of seriousness and the relaxation of standards in university education generally, at any rate outside the sciences," Epstein wrote.
Agreed; the PhD, not that I have one, or would want one, has become a politically correct joke, and this story proves it.
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