WHAT IF--U.S. Education Practices Were To Change?

Does your blood boil when you read about another American company outsourcing some of their best paying jobs?  Does it bring to mind that the U.S. is no longer the manufacturing center of the world; that we no longer make televisions or cameras in the U.S.: that if it weren't for Honda and Toyota, very few autos would even be assembled in the U.S?  Why is this so?

We have become a nation of "Service Providers"; a nation of clerks; a nation of lawyers; of bankers; of teachers.  A recent poll of New York State high school seniors revealed that 79% had ambitions to teach.  And of that number, 55% wanted to teach "Special Education".  In a recent 10th grade Honors Social Studies class, the students were asked to comment on the subjects--the professions-they hoped to pursue in college.  Student after student rose and proudly proclaimed they would major in "Education".  When my granddaughter said she hoped to get into Medical School, the student next to her said "..why would you want to work so hard"?  Because my granddaughter was wise beyond her years, she responded, "..When you do something you like, it's not really work."

That interchange set me to looking into the state of education in the U.S.  What I found was upsetting and was a clear omen about our country's future.

During the last 10 years, U.S. colleges/universities awarded 16% of their degrees in the natural sciences or engineering.  In South Korea and China, for example, such awards were 38% and 47%, respectively.  The U.S. now ranks 27th among "developed" nations in the proportion of students receiving undergraduate degrees in science or engineering

In a 2008 International Testing Project, U.S. high school seniors placed last, or near last, in almost every major subject.  We did beat out Mexico in mathematics but, I suspect that was because the tests were given in English.

Of course we can't put all the blame on the students. From 1970 to 1995, Federal support for research in the physical sciences, as a fraction of GDP, declined 54%; in engineering, it declined 51%.  As of late, annual Federal spending on mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering equals only "..the increase in health-care costs every 9 weeks."  At the rates noted above, it won't be too long before we will have enough teachers to provide every student with a 1 to 1 teacher/student ratio.  But of one fact we can be absolutely certain--the teachers won't be teaching and the students won't be learning physics, math, chem, or all those other "worthless" subjects which are so difficult and make you work so hard.

Our loss signifies a rosy future for India; Pakistan: Bangladesh: Maylasia, and even Mexico and Canada.

This is what happens to a culture which dictates that every "worthwhile" student "must" attend college and which demands that every student receive an "A" or that colleges simply rate students on a "pass/fail" basis or insists, that to make students "feel good", universal tests, such as State Regents Examinations, establish 55% as a passing grade.

My grandchildren will all major in the physical sciences and/or engineering and by doing so they will have learned the truth about that old adage "..In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King."