Kyle Smith’s National Review Column is Un-American - And Not Because it Attacks the Future First Lady

Kyle Smith, a journalist for the National Review, recently wrote a scathing indictment of Dr. Jill Biden. I could defend Dr. Biden, but I don’t think she needs my help. I’m sure she can take care of herself. I can’t comment on her dissertation, because I haven’t read it. But when Mr. Smith - a privileged Yale graduate from a Massachusetts suburb - attacked Dr. Biden, he, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Army who writes for a conservative magazine, did a decidedly un-American thing: he went after the American dream.

Before I get into why, let’s talk about sources, since Mr. Smith is, after all, a journalist. He picked a student review - one that can easily be found on ratemyprofessor.com (such a reliable source!) - as his example of Dr. Biden’s teaching abilities. It says, “She very bad teacher and it is hard to pass class. I RECOMMEND NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR.” I don’t teach community college; I DO teach adult ESL, and I would bet my life savings (admittedly, not much, I’m a teacher) that review was written by someone who is still learning the English language. Probably, someone not really ready for English 111, the class Dr. Biden most often teaches at Northern Virginia Community College. He ignored the rave reviews that wrote of her as an inspiring instructor and neglected to mention her overall four out of five star rating. He didn’t want to mention, I’m sure, that many of the complaints centered around her reputation as a tough grader who gives a lot of homework. Oh no, high standards and a lot of work? We wouldn’t want that in college!

Is cherry-picking your sources to support your argument something they encourage at Yale? 

Which brings me to another point about sources. Mr. Smith accuses Dr. Biden of spending “a lot of time teaching remedial English to slow learners in community colleges.”

His sources are less reliable than my first car, and that’s not a compliment.

English 111 is not remedial. It’s freshmen English, the standard English composition course many colleges and universities require students to take or test out of in their freshmen year. Dr. Biden’s students likely include recently graduated high school students who have decided to take some of their classes at community college as a way of avoiding astronomical student debt - something that most people contend is a wise move, particularly if you’re thinking about a career in public service, anything that might not pay big bucks, or even if you just want to retire early. If local high schools offer concurrent enrollment, she might be teaching highly motivated, brilliant high school students who are starting college while still in high school, also trying to avoid student debt by getting college credit as cheaply as possible. She almost certainly teaches some English as a second language students, which is a misnomer; many “ESL” students are learning English not as a second language, but as a third, fourth, or fifth.

Slow learners? Please. Spare me the stereotypes.

Here’s the part that is so incredibly sad to me: what if he was right about Dr. Biden teaching remedial English? If Dr. Biden DID spend her entire career teaching remedial English to learners who struggled to understand how to use a semicolon correctly and had to take GED more than once, would that be a waste of her life, professionally speaking? 

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a community college instructor. I am not personally insulted by Smith’s disparaging analogy that Biden’s career as a community college instructor makes her like “a rock musician who’s in a bar band. That plays covers. At mixers. Held in assisted-living facilities." I have briefly taught high school - in a Title I high school, where 99% of the students were eligible for free lunch and only 260 of the 1500 students were seniors; many of our students dropped out before their senior year, so our student body was skewed to the lower grades. I have substitute taught in middle schools and high schools. I have been a volunteer tutor for an adult literacy program and helped a 21-year-old who read at a first-grade level improve his reading because he wanted a chance at a better job. For most of my career, I have taught adults in various English as a second language programs and often, I have worked alongside other instructors in adult education. Adult education is always, as my husband would say, the red-headed stepchild at the family table. In the perpetually underfunded field of education, that leaves adult educators begging for crumbs.

Smith’s disdain for community colleges, their students and their instructors is unmistakable, as I’m sure he intended for it to be. For someone writing for a “conservative editorial magazine,” and someone who is a veteran, I can’t imagine a less-American sentiment.

People in this country are constantly told to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It could be our national slogan.We practically shout it, like a rallying cry, the way my son’s football coach yells “rub some dirt on it!” when a player scrapes some skin off on a hard play. But when some students pursue the most logical avenue available to them - the affordable community college, not wanting to incur the massive student loans that they may never be able to repay - they’re mocked. They’re shamed and ridiculed by people with Ivy League educations (not all, of course - apologies to the decent Ivy Leaguers out there) who think they are somehow better because their degree has a different college’s name at the top. Those poor community college students, they must be bottom of the barrel; and their teachers, too, must be less than stellar, if that is their only option.

Smith is right in some respects, even if he does paint with a broad, stereotypical brush. Community colleges do offer remedial English classes, if students need them.

And if a student does, in fact, need remedial English?

Does that deserve derision?

A student who needs to take a remedial English class after high school usually has a very good reason. Not always, but since Kyle Smith painted with broad strokes, I’ll follow suit. 

A student taking remedial English might have suffered abuse in their childhood, or homelessness. They might have had an undiagnosed learning disability. Their parents might have gone through a painful, traumatic divorce while they were in high school, and they fell behind and never caught up. Maybe they had to work two jobs to help with the family bills. Maybe they were in foster care and went from family to family and school to school and were just trying to survive. Maybe, it just took until they were nineteen or twenty for their executive function skills to really kick in, and now they’re ready to conquer the world - or at least, English 101. It’s possible they were raised by parents with drug problems or struggled with mental illness or any one of dozens, if not hundreds, of scenarios that make school the very last priority on anyone’s to-do list. So they failed English class in high school. Do they deserve to be looked down on for that?

It really doesn’t matter why that student is in English class again. It matters that they’re there. They are paying for that class. Their teacher, however little they’re making, is a professional who is trying to help that person achieve their goal - whether it’s getting their GED or a degree or starting a business. 

I don’t know Smith’s religious views, but he writes for a conservative magazine, and the majority of conservatives consider our country a Christian nation (I could argue with this, but let’s just roll with it for a minute). Consider this: if the story of the Prodigal son occurred today, where do you think the reformed son would go, once he had his life in order? He’d squandered his inheritance, he’d partied when he could have (should have?) been building a career. The Prodigal Son, newly penitent and ready to be a good citizen, would be the perfect candidate to go to the community college for a second chance.

And there’s not a thing wrong with that. This is America, land of opportunity, second chances, career changes, and endless possibilities. Community colleges, with their affordable classes and varied schedules, represent the idea that it is never too late to learn. 

Smith, with his insulting analogy, denigrates every teacher who has taught in a community college, every teacher who has helped the “slow” (and that word is also enraging) students. It’s highly likely that one of Dr. Biden’s former students read Mr. Smith’s article, read his opinion of students who gathered their courage, took a deep breath, and went to the registrar’s office to sign up not just for a class, but for a second chance. I hope that student still knows the truth: that their education was worth seeking out. That it takes true grit to start over when the education system, teachers, and possibly even your own family have told you you’re not smart enough to succeed. That it takes guts, to know your own value and believe in yourself. That some students might give up or become disheartened by some cheap shots from a so-called journalist seeking his fifteen minutes of fame simultaneously breaks my heart and makes me want to throw something.

I wonder if Kyle Smith has ever done anything, even during his military service, that takes the kind of courage that it takes for an adult to go back to school for a GED at 20 or 30 or 40, after quitting or failing high school. The kind of courage it takes for a resettled refugee to pick up and start over again, learning a new language, a new alphabet, a new culture. It’s a special kind of courage, the kind of courage shared by pilgrims and pioneers, and it shouldn't be dismissed.

The other truth is, the teachers who help students who aren’t gifted - those who are behind - are usually amazing. They’re the teachers with creative techniques to connect with students, the ones who have studied the research and have taught for years to become adept at the best techniques, and have the most patience. Teachers who can teach reading and writing to adults who struggle know their stuff, quite honestly. 

I’m not going to hunt down Dr. Biden’s dissertation and read it and defend it to anyone, because she’s already done it. But it’s disingenuous to drag community college students into arguments about whether or not our future First Lady deserves her title of “doctor,” and whether or not she’s a good teacher. If Smith has issues with whether or not she deserves her degree, he can do research - thoroughly, please, with well-documented sources - and leave her students out of it. They’re busy pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, and it’s disgusting to watch a bully try to kick them back down.

On a side note, to all the community college students and instructors out there:

If you’re attending a community college: good for you. Don’t let this privileged snob get you down. Your education is meaningful. You decide what you get out of your classes, by your effort and participation. The degree is just a piece of paper. 

To the student who went back: you are brave, and you are amazing. Don’t quit. I am rooting for you. You can do this.

To the instructors: thanks for doing what you do. Thanks for being there for the students who need encouragement, and patience, and solid, research-based instruction. 

I doubt Kyle Smith will read this, but just in case, - as far as careers go, I’d rather be “a rock musician who’s in a bar band. That play covers. At mixers. Held in assisted living facilities,” than a shoddy journalist who picks on people doing their best. One requires talent, at least.