Dear Sir, you are exactly correct about the EdD. I have three master’s degrees.
1) MS Electrical Engineering from JHU. I barely survived with a 3.0 GPA, immediately after earning my BSEE. I can tell you about Maxwell’s Equations, and I learned many valuable mathematical applications of engineering. It was quite simply the hardest academic year of my life. A wonderfully hard year, very well spent. Honestly graded.
2) MS International Relations from Troy University. This required 5 years, 12 classes, one class per semester, each class reading at least five books and writing a coherent 10-page paper. Five years well spent thinking, arguing online, and supporting my positions. We read Thucydides, Huntington, Luttwak, and all of the classically good IR literature. 5 years, well spent. I started reading several other Greek classics to include Plutarch’s Lives.
3) M.Ed. (SMU). This was 12 classes crammed into a single year, and I remember exactly one book. One I had already read. I did enjoy the Law course. But, when the Special Programs (Special Ed.) professor made everyone repeat the mantra about SpEd kids “ALL children can learn, as long we find the necessary accommodations for them”, I knew I’d slipped through Alice’s Looking Glass. A year behind this facade deterred me from teaching any longer.
Donald Braswell
Rockwall, TX
