Eyes On The Prizes (America Usually Prevails)

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 6 October 2006 | Staff

[shrinkermd]

Eyes On The Prizes

Competitiveness: Chemistry, medicine, physics. Three Nobel Prizes, five Americans, a clean sweep. We hear so often of the “crisis” in American education. So why do we win so many of the world’s top science awards?

Just this summer, yet another report came out saying the U.S. is at risk when it comes to education. And frankly, it’s tough to argue with the evidence: On standardized tests, American schoolchildren last year finished 16th in science and 21st in math against their counterparts in 27 other wealthy nations. Not too good —mediocre at best.

And yet, come Nobel Prize time, the U.S. wins an awful lot of the prestigious awards. Of the 664 Nobels given for science, economics and literature since 1900, Americans have won or shared 282, or about 42%.

U.S. dominance is particularly evident in the sciences, where we’ve won 48% of chemistry awards, 61% of physics and 58% of medicine since 1950 — despite having just 5% of the world’s population. In the past quarter-century, the economics prize has gone almost exclusively to Americans.

[shrinkermd]

FYI and thought. In the meantime, the editorial concludes with:

"...There are good reasons for this — some not readily apparent, others not easy to quantify.

"One is the money we spend on research and development. In 2003, for instance, the U.S. total was $285 billion, compared with $211 billion for the EU and $114 billion for Japan. All that spending requires lots of scientists to do the work.

Our universities also proudly move graduates into the commercial world. Unlike, say, in Europe, there’s no shame in commerce here.

"Finally, while our university system is much (and properly) derided for political correctness in the social sciences and arts, that’s usually not the case in science. In science and engineering, results rule. Just like the U.S. this time of year in Stockholm.

[tdewey10]

"Finally, while our university system is much (and properly) derided for political correctness in the social sciences and arts, that’s usually not the case in science. In science and engineering, results rule. Just like the U.S. this time of year in Stockholm."


Of course the feminazis and AAnazis would like to change this and promote persons in science and engineering based on gender and race and not on ability. Look what happened to Larry Summers.

[jpl]

It may be that the effects of the deliberate dumbing down of our school system (a fairly recent phenomenon) haven't been fully felt yet.

If you go to pretty much any major university now and go to the undergraduate and graduate hard science departments, what you will see is that the overwhelming majority of the students there are from other countries.

[ClaireSolt]

Standardized tests report averages. In fact, education in America is a pot pourri of different systems, some excellent, mediocre, and horrible. Reform of the very bad urban schools is inhibited by satisfaction with suburban schools.

[knarf]

I wonder if there is a % of naturalized citizens and what it might be.

I hear (read) a lot about the Asian and how so far advanced they are in academics.

I remember in the late 50's/early 60's .. the Russians were so far ahead of us, and nipping at their heels were the Japanese with their incredible work ethic and .. yadda yadda.

and not to be out done .. let's not forget the illegal Mexican doing the work we just won't do (THIS one gets a Nobel / sarcasm tag .. the others are legit questions)

[definitelynotaliberal]

Thought you might like this.

[definitelynotaliberal]

ping

[Teacher317]

Freedom allows our students to excel... just as it allows them to wallow in intellectual mediocrity, bringing down our elites' averages.

As one poster wrote yesterday, if I want worker drones, I'll hire foreigner labor. If I want a creative and innovative solution to an unexpected problem, I hire Americans. Which do you think is the more valuable and desirable reputation to have?

[fishtank]

bumpo

[untenured]

It is possible for the US to dominate the highest ends of science, while still having a miserable education system overall. Our system probably does do the best with people at the far right end of the IQ and ambition distribution. Some reasons for this have already been suggested on this thread. I would add the fact that our university faculties are open to the smartest people in the world regardless of where they were born, something that countries like China and India will never be able to duplicate. We may even do better than other countries with people at the lower end of the IQ distribution, because of the constant pressure to mainstream and what I assume is the large amount of money we spend on educating the "disabled" (although this is just an idle guess).

But if the vast bulk of the middle are breezily waved through on an educational diet of self-esteem and social promotion, it might still be that they are cheated. Our miserable performance in international comparisons of math and science skills certainly suggests this possibility.