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When Jill Biden announced that she would also continue to serve as the First Lady of the United States, she caused a stir. The 69-year-old has been an English teacher at Northern Virginia Community College for decades. She told Vogue that she liked working: “Like many of your readers, I am a working woman. Teaching is my passion ”. She had continued in her job while her husband was vice president under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.
In connection with her teaching activities, Jill received a doctorate from the University of Delaware in January 2007. She received the title of “Doctor of Education”, or EdD for short, a degree comparable to the doctorate widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries. The University of Delaware is rated as a university with a very high level of research activity, which is a prerequisite for those who did their PhD there to be able to have a PhD in Germany, for example.
However, a discussion has broken out in the US about whether Jill Biden should have this Ph.D. It was provoked by essayist Joseph Epstein with an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. In her text, 83-year-old Jill speaks directly to Biden with the words: “Madame First Lady – Mrs. Biden – Jill – kiddo” and advises: “Dr. Jill, think about it and get rid of the doctor in the future.” .
The thrust of Epstein’s contribution appears to be a critique of the fact that PhDs are generally awarded lightly. In the past, it was necessary to master Greek or Latin for this, and during examinations a secretary waited with a glass of water to prevent exhausted examinees from fainting. Today, the exam situations are more like a “coffee talk” (in the original German). The essayist is particularly angry at the honorary degrees that have been distributed more and more generously after his observation.
But academic standards were hardly discussed after Saturday’s post; instead, it was much more about personal recognition. Jill Biden herself responded through her Twitter account, username “@DrBiden”: “Together we are working in a world in which the achievements of our daughters are celebrated and not minimized.”
Several people from her husband’s political environment took the side of the future first lady. Communications Director Elizabeth Alexander called the comment “Sexist and shameful”; Presidential Transition Team spokesman Michael LaRosa, attacked the Wall Street Journalbeing ashamed of having published this “sexist attack” on Jill Biden: “If you had any respect for women, you would remove this disgusting display of chauvinism and apologize to her.” : “Her name is Dr. Jill Biden, get used to it.”
The editor responsible for the opinion page of the “Wall Street Journal”, Paul A. Gigot, did not want to let the criticism fall on him. In a response article, he accused Biden’s team of deliberately sparking excitement around the contribution, by political calculation. He suspects they wanted to send a message to the party’s internal critics “with the great cannon of identity politics”: “It’s the left-wing version of Donald Trump’s ‘enemies of the people’ tweets.”
Recently there have been several disputes over opinion pieces in the American media. The New York Times opinion leader resigned in the summer. His resignation was related to strong criticism of a Trump-style guest contribution that the newspaper had posted on its opinion page.
On the matter itself, Gigot defends the article as “factual criticism”, and the subject is “comparatively insignificant”. However, the “Wall Street Journal” also publishes a large number of letters to the editor criticizing the tone and perspective of Joseph Epstein on the one hand – the term “kiddo” (colloquially: child) in particular is perceived as condescending.
Meanwhile, the university, where Joseph Epstein had taught for a long time, has also spoken out. That was nearly 20 years ago, and is rejected if well-deserved academic awards are underrated, he said in a statement from Northwestern University. The university has now removed Emeritus Epstein from its professors’ overview page.
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