It's DOCTOR Jill Jacobs-Biden by Dr. Michael Flanagan

This “controversy” began with a  WSJ Op Ed piece about Dr. Jill Jacobs-Biden’s use of the prefix “Dr.”, an academic and professional courtesy afforded to most professors, scientists, economists, physicists, psychologists, teachers, principals, theologians, etc. over the centuries. Apparently, conservatives now feel that the term “doctor” should only be used in reference to medical doctors, MD’s. It is ironic that this WSJ hack is deriding the use of the term doctor for a college professor, since the origin of the word doctor comes from the Latin docēre, which means “to teach”. So basically, a teacher is the person for whom the title doctor is most appropriate.

But never let research and facts get in the way of an imbecilic right wing smear campaign. This drivel was then reinforced by noted white supremacist Tucker Carlson in his nonsensical attack on Biden’s dissertation. I will not reference his vitriol here. 

Education does not equal intelligence. There are plenty of intelligent people that never even completed high school. Earning any degree in college takes dedication, commitment and fortitude -in addition to large amounts of time and money. Earning a doctorate while working and maintaining a family is another thing altogether. 

Dr. Jill Jacobs-Biden was teaching at a community college while working on her Doctor of Education degree and writing her doctoral dissertation. Unlike Carlson, I actually read her paper. It is well researched and written in the academic method required by the American Psychological Association. Besides the quality of the research and writing, the dissertation is important to a large number of students in this country struggling to get their degrees in community colleges.  But as any true researcher would tell you, do not take my word for it, Read it yourself.

I defended my own dissertation in 2006, the same year Dr. Biden defended hers. I only refer to myself as “Dr.” when I write articles -like this one. I use the prefix Dr. when I submit college recommendations for my 12th graders. I use the suffix Ed.D. on official correspondence pertaining to my job as a teacher. I have never asked anyone to call me “doctor”, and I would never even dream of asking any student I teach to refer to me that way. Most of the time they usually call me “mister” or  just “Flanagan”. 

And that is fine. Because if you need people to call you by an academic title you are missing the point. If people choose to call you by that title on their own, that is a sign of respect.  Respect is earned. So I will proffer it to our next First Lady, not just because of her position, but because she earned that title. She put in the work. I respect that. 

Doctor Jill Jacobs-Biden. 

The title doctor was earned by Dr. Jill Jacobs-Biden, myself, and the thousands of other Ph.D’s and Ed.D’s  around the world. It says the following on my doctoral degree:  

The use of the term doctor for people who have obtained a doctoral degree has never been an issue before. Until a tough, smart and charismatic woman became our democratically elected First lady. Now, hard work and intelligence is a bad thing to those who wallow in ignorance. Nothing was given to Dr. Jacobs-Biden. Her dissertation was not written by some professional speech writer and read by some con man off of a Teleprompter. It represents years and years of dedication.

I recently made a social media post in defense of Dr. Jacobs-Biden calling myself Dr. Michael Flanagan and saying it took me nine years to finish the degree and was paid for in a lifetime. Under that post there were dozens and dozens of people saying the same thing. Citing their degrees and how long it took them to complete. It was both impressive and humbling to see how many people had put so much time, money and heart into an academic achievement. I could feel the pride in every comment. 

My dissertation took four years to propose, research, write and defend. The degree took nine years in total and I completed it while I was teaching high school and working as a dean in the Bronx. I did not need to finish the degree. I did it out of dedication and to prove something to myself. I had clawed my way up through the City College (CUNY) system of NYC, and struggled to pay my way through the Ivy League Columbia University. I wanted to show that you could be a mediocre student from a city university and complete the highest academic degree from one of the top schools in the world. I did that for me. 

Every year I teach a lesson to my seniors about college. For that lesson I bring in my transcripts, my teacher certifications and my college degrees to pass around to the students in the room. While that’s happening I tell them about the struggles  I went through to get all of those degrees and licenses. The times I dropped out. The struggle to pay the tuition. The difficulty of maintaining grades. The sacrifice of time spent with family and friends. How hard it was to attend classes after work. I use those experiences  to show them that there are many ways to go about finding happiness and success. You just have to keep trying. 

My doctorate does not define me, but it is a point of personal pride. It was a challenge to push myself to complete a degree that I could never have imagined finishing when I first started college. Dr. Jacobs-Biden’s academic title is not something that could be bought. It was earned through years of hard work. That is something her detractors will never understand.

I take it personally that conservative ignoramuses are choosing to attack Dr. Jacobs-Biden‘s title, career and dissertation. It doesn’t make me angry from a political punditry point of view. That nonsense has been going on for years. What makes me angry-as it should all of us- is that they are a debasing education in general and women educators specifically. 

We just lived through four years of an illiterate president who couldn’t string together a cohesive sentence. And before Joe Biden even takes office they are attacking one of the most highly educated first ladies in history. 

The far right is preaching to people who resent academics. Just as they do teachers and teacher unions. And most of all they hate intelligent educated women. They want to minimize and belittle the achievements of women in general, and smart women scare them the most. They feel if they devalue Biden’s degree, then they can justify their own ignorance. 

Well, one should never roll around with pigs in the mud, because you both get dirty, but the pigs like it. And, we should never argue with a stupid people, because they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. Therefore I conclude with this:

#DrJillBiden