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Increase America's talent pool by vastly improving K-12 mathematics and science education. · Among the recommended implementation steps is the creation of a merit-based scholarship program to attract 10,000 exceptional students to math and science teaching careers each year. Four-year scholarships, worth up to $20,000 annually, should be designed to help some of the nation's top students obtain bachelor's degrees in physical or life sciences, engineering, or mathematics -- with concurrent certification as K-12 math and science teachers. After graduation, they would be required to work for at least five years in public schools. Participants who teach in disadvantaged inner-city or rural areas would receive a $10,000 annual bonus. Each of the 10,000 teachers would serve about 1,000 students over the course of a teaching career, having an impact on 10 million minds, the report says.

I beg to disagree. You can spend millions, even billions, and yes you will end up with some very bright teachers. Teachers can't teach to kids who refuse to cooperate. Many of today's students don't want to be at school and don't even try to learn. There biggest challenge every day is to see how much they can get away with without getting caught. "COOL" rules! The "smart" kids just try to stay out of the way. All day they are bombarded with the profanity and gutter behavior of the miscreants. I would love to see a scholarship program that would reward kids for being acheivers in high school. Show that you are serious about learning (through four years of high school) and get the chance of a lifetime. Maybe even put them on a priority list for lucrative gov't. jobs that come open after the student graduates from college.

Sorry about the rant. I worked in a middle school and coached the Scholars' Bowl team. What a great bunch of kids! But, unfortunatly, at least 60% of the students didn't care a lick about learning anything. Teachers spend most of their time dealing with the show-offs.

It would be interesting to show current students what happens in the lives of 'cool' versus'geek' students after the end of high school. My brother-in-law was definitely a 'cool' student before coolness had achieved such prominence. He frankly states he 'hated school from the first day of first grade'. And 'Couldn't wait to get out of it for good.' His focus was on females and sports (he was a good athlete) and that was it. He told me he doesn't think he has ever read one book in his life although he does make it a point of scanning a daily newspaper. If he is any example of 'col' students their home life is chaos without any sort of competent adult involvement or a male authority figure being present.

After 40 years from dropping out of high school in his junior year he is one step removed from homelessness and has two trips to the penitentiary for non violent felonies
on his record. He also married when he was 18 and his marital track record has been just as disorganized as the rest of his life. Seeing the wreckage of the life of a man who could have had a productive life and business if he hadn't thrown every honest opportunity away I can only wonder if this sort of misery and dysfunction isn't the lot of many 'cool' students when they enter the adult world.

NCLB militates against increased performance in practice because of its wrongheaded assumption that all children can be high acheivers.

I see it leading to even greater disruption in the classroom as the frustration level of those who must struggle just to maintain minimum passing grades will lash out at the closest targets of their perceived source of discomfort, the teachers and the innately apt.

All successful societies are stratified by nature and those that aren't don't remain successful.

The U.S. could be a world leader in life-extension science but might find itself in the curious position of leading the world in suicide, domestic violence and park-bench philosophy.

Gee Whiz technology gets us worthless devices made simply for mass entertainment as well as mass spectrometers designed to analyze the purity of the very air we seem to be determined to waste in simple pursuits.

What we really need is a new world, hostile and wild, one worth the taming.

Many of today's students don't want to be at school and don't even try to learn. There biggest challenge every day is to see how much they can get away with without getting caught.

This is the key, if we make it culturally acceptable, even preferable to be an achiever then everything would change.

I know some grade school kids that have memorized dozens of rap songs but can't memorize multiplication tables.

These same kids think the object of going to school is to get by without actually learning anything.

What we need is a leader to motivate the teachers and the students to excel, the rest will follow.