It sounds pretty impressive to call oneself a “doctor of education,” as if that betokened some deep learning about how to teach. After all, we have Dr. Jill Biden, who purports to know a lot about college education.
But in today’s Martin Center article, Professor Stanley Ridgley of Drexel University casts doubt on the value of such credentials. He writes:
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.
Indeed. These ersatz doctorates used to be merely expensive wall décor and a way to get a guaranteed raise, but, now, the “learning” in these programs has become toxic.
Ridgley explains:
Education schools were corrupted with ideology years ago. The neo-Marxist “critical” thinking of Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Michael Apple, and bell hooks has colonized education schools for more than two decades, even as ed-school websites provide not a whisper of this alien ideology. Ed schools crank out graduates like a Krispy Kreme donut line. In 2021 alone, the most recent year available, 13,655 doctorates in education were awarded. These schools reliably produce credentialed “professionals” in “student affairs,” “educational leadership,” and “higher-education administration.” Their graduates believe themselves to be “scholar practitioners” tasked with “transforming higher education.”
Ed schools are a major source of the intellectual pollution in America. I love Ridley’s conclusion: “It’s time to unlock the closed kilns of education schools and expose the contents to the sunlight of scrutiny, debate, and—ultimately—dramatic reform. Much more is at stake than the egocentric preening of ‘Doctor’ Jill Biden and her ilk.”