Yes, You Should Call Her Doctor
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Writer's Attack on the Soon-to-Be First Lady Warrants Barely a Passing Grade
First Lady-elect Jill Biden has earned the right to be called Dr. Biden. She received a doctor of education degree from University of Delaware in 2007, based on a dissertation that “focused on maximizing student retention in community colleges.” It is an important topic, given the difficulties students at community colleges face, difficulties I have seen first hand teaching at two New Jersey schools.
Joseph Epstein, an essayist, disagrees — and he took to The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page to make the case. His essay “Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D.” is one of those essays that comes off as a fresh take, when it really is nothing more than flashy nonsense. Epstein engages in gamesmanship, misdirection, bad faith, and bad logic, as he pens a screed that manages to be condescending, dismissive, and amazingly shallow given the platform.
What hit me when I read this was that I would not allow my students to engage in this kind of empty rhetoric. They are required to support their arguments with more than cherry-picked anecdotes and assumptions. So, I graded the essay based on one of the freshman composition rubrics used at one of my schools.
Here is the rubric and grade — a 72, which means the essay would pass, but not by much.
The rubric:
Here is my mark up of the text:
Am I being fair? I think so, but I’d invite readers to weigh in.