Posted on 02/01/2003 5:33:53 AM PST by A. Pole
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:09:04 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In a few short weeks, our nation will likely be at war with Iraq. But while soldiers train and weapons inspectors search, a hidden weakness in American classrooms could prove much more dangerous in the long run to America's military and economic future than Saddam Hussein could ever be. Since 9/11, American military might has relied more than ever on high-tech air power. Electronically guided ordnance and unmanned aerial vehicles helped rout the Taliban. Conventional wisdom maintains that as soon as these weapons can be restocked, the same scenario will play out wherever the next conflict takes place. This is a shortsighted and dangerous presumption. As the war on terrorism continues, the combination of America's go-it-alone foreign policy and more restrictive immigration and student visa laws are becoming a danger to US technological supremacy, both on the battlefield and in the boardroom.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
You do not have to study engineering. You can study law or medicine which are relatively protected from global competition, you can study fields which help you to make a government career.
Or you can invest you time and efforts in building a business which cannot be done abroad or by foreigners. You do not need college for everything, you cannot do house construction in China for American market, it is easier to be plummer if you grew up in your town, etc ...
This entire article is a self-serving winge by universities who make a fabulous living out of educating foreign students and don't want that interfered with for a moment.
But the whole argument is spurious. Whether or not it is in our long term best interest to provide educational oportunites in science and technology to foreign students is an excellent point to debate. Nothing that happens at a university will have any substantial impact on our ability to deal with Iraq in the next six months, or, in fact, in the next 5-10 years.
Quality is not everything. If you make a product to be priced $100 and next to it will be an inferior one from Malesia or China priced $50 how many people will buy yours? Especially if they will be struggling too?
Also I would not bet that quality of foreign goods must significantly lower.
Yup.
We need government out of schools to eliminate the education monopoly. Why does the government enforce anti-trust on every industry except baseball and education? Education can clearly be done better by private industry.
I do not agree with this article. But the topics are important.
Innovation has been ans will continue to be the crux of American economic growth.
Firstly we have dumbed-down our schools at all levels. When I was in college (1973) I noted that Asian freshmen were aleady educated at or above "sophomore" level. This was at Cornell University.
When I went to Grad school at M.I.T., I noticed that the asian undergrads were taking graduate-level courses and excelling at them.
Pepper White, in his memorable book The Idea Factory described the trouble of competing with "a Korean kid who had memorized the entire textbook" (I'm quoting loosely from memory).
The high-school graduates we turn out are semi-literate at best. See, e.g., the "1895 exam" that periodically is posted or circulated by email.
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After investing in an engineering education and spending 28 years in the field, I realize I made a serious mistake. I'd never advise a kid to go into engineering. My mother was right: I should have been a doctor. Heck, a plumber can probably make as much as I do.
A girl I dated in college was in "Human Ecology", PC-speak for "Home Economics". We corresponded many years later and I discovered that she was a marketing director with a staff of 70, a mid-six-figure income, and a Ferrari.
Hmm. I suffered through grad-level calculus and fluid dynamics [book] for, um, what? I shoulda studied cooking.
Private industry is already doing the education. The main problem is with funding. I just checked the cost of training in one local private college for a engineering field which is still in demand. They have only four studends instead of twenty because scholarships and state help for retraining got eliminated. Taking the bank loans is very risky, if the Indians or Chinese can enter it at lower price (either by getting training in their home countries, or living abroad or living here at the standard unnacceptable to Americans).
Good for you! But what about many hundreds of thousands of American engineers who lost their jobs while Intel, Microsoft and others are moving the jobs to India or China? (Not speaking about indentured H1-B). Of course there will be exceptionally talented or lucky individuals like you, but there are many your fellow-countrymen who are decent, hard working and not stupid but whose chances will decrease significantly.
No, I would NEVER recommend my children engineering studies, unless they got full scholarship or studied abroad (this is a real possibility, since you can study cheaper in other countries or get it even for free if you are willing to learn the language). And I would tell them to have some non-enginnering skils or forget it.
Private industry is doing some of the educating. The number of students educated in public schools FAR exceeds the number educated in private institutions. I'd say it's a 9:1 ratio.
Did you really mean to say that private industry does the educating?
And speaking of quality versus price... even those who choose to pay for private education still have to pay for public education! What a racquet! Even if you don't choose to buy the product, you still have to pay for it!!
Only government could assail us in such an unsavory manner.
Good point. So I would say the first can be exported and the third can be exported too (after all the research is done the production can be done elsewhere).
But the second is done best when you see your customer face to face. You cannot export plumming or dentist jobs easily (although you can flood the market with immigrants). So maybe the right careers are the one which require your presence here and being native or very well assimilated. Lawyers or politicians are good examples. But not engineers.
THis bears repeating IMO!
The culture is a problem, WOSG. You're right about that. I would assert, however, that "the pendulum is swinging back" to more rigorous studies in K-12.
You'll always read this article or that saying whatever sells, but the truth is we're swinging back. I hope we get there in time to save our arses.
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