Posted on 06/02/2006 9:02:13 AM PDT by RKV
Next we'll be recruiting ILLEGAS for this and call it the "jobs Americans won't do" and pay them to do it.
To a greater degree (I couldn't say precisely how much), "our own" come from homes where education is intrinsically valued less, where single parents make close attention to education in the house much more difficult, and where the local public schools perform miserably for reasons that have almost nothing to do with money.
So it seems unavoidable to me that exclusively "educating our own," given the society from which they come, will mean a significant drop in U.S. scientific talent.
With political mush like this from friends, science doesn't need enemies.
This morning I heard an ongoing story on the radio about a lawsuit involving three illegal alien students against the Albuquerque Public School district and how APS will modify their policies to become a "safe haven" for illegals. Immediately following that was another news story about how US students score abysmally in math and science compared to other countries. One can only conclude that there is a concerted effort to turn the US into a third world country.
Undoubtedly some American kids can do better than they are, but if so it will be their parents who make it happen. Much good could come from emphasizing the importance of solid families in solid education, but it is not a magic bullet against these broader social trends.
So what specifically do you have problems with in this article? Sweeping general criticism without details to support it doesn't really go too far with me.
Why does EVERYTHING have to turn into a Bush bash. These liberals just can't control themselves. This statement is simply ignorant. I say its the liberals who are operating now in an irrational manner.
Please, this is just so stupid. So Bush is against EMBRYONIC stem cell research, sceptical about Global Warming Doom and Gloomism ( a scientific position that I maintain), and he disagrees with liberals about energy policy. Gee, I guess the decades long disinterest in science shown by American kids is his fault. Ok, well its not his fault, but if he all of a sudden BELIEVED in those three things, it would all be better! How utterly ridiculous.
But the writer, Christopher Mims, goes on to do just that. He also makes some spectacularly unsupported statements and leaps of faith in order to make his argument sound more substantive than it is. Not a desirable trait in a "science writer", is it...
Again and again, whether it is stem cells or energy policy or global warming or the dubious need to "teach the controversy," Bush has demonstrated that he is, literally, anti-rational—opposed to the assumptions about proof and inquiry without which science would be merely alchemy.
This is written by an ideologue with an agenda. I don't share his agenda.
Higher wages do incentivise people in a market economy. If you continue to increase the supply of labor (of a particular kind) you lower the return on investment in education and rational people make decisions on that basis. Further, based on my university experience, failing to demand better teaching than exists now, will certainly not help the situation. My calculus teacher (way back in the pliestocene when I was mushy headed freshman) had english as his third language. His class was awful an I thank my TAs for getting me through it. We can and should do better.
Whether or not you agree with his politics does have the basic points wrong? I think not. We need to improve science education in the US.
Why don't we start with the title? Sounds like a Middle School report.
Indeed.
but it stands to reason that a president elected, and then re-elected, must in some way embody the beliefs of the electorate—here, specifically, its prioritization of science.
QED
No you don't know me and I don't give a damn about intelligent design.
I doubt that the reason for poor American sci/math performance is a wage problem occurring because of low-cost foreigners, although I admit it's possible. I think you're underestimating the power of all of contemporary American society's incentives to devalue S/M education.
Further, based on my university experience, failing to demand better teaching than exists now, will certainly not help the situation.
I work in a university, and can't fault you there. :)
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