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Science, technology not making the grades in U.S.
Washington Times ^ | 11-17-06 | Kara Rowland and Bryce Baschuk

Posted on 11/17/2006 11:14:42 AM PST by JZelle

The United States may be the world's biggest consumer of technology, but when it comes to churning out scientists and engineers, American schools and families are not generating enough interest, educators say. "We are behind the eight ball right now because other nations are competitive and pushing hard," said JoAnn DiGennaro, president of the Center for Excellence in Education, a McLean nonprofit that promotes science and technology education. Why aren't American students pursuing degrees in science and technology?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: education; math; science
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1 posted on 11/17/2006 11:14:44 AM PST by JZelle
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To: JZelle
H1-B's drive down the salaries for American technology workers to what is essentially below market price.

Price is driven by supply and demand. The US currently has a high demand, but waters down salary by getting the supply from India and China (2 Billion people to draw from).

It's very hard to justify a career in technology in the US.

2 posted on 11/17/2006 11:18:36 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: JZelle

Maybe we should start giving college aid based on what your chosen subject matter is?


3 posted on 11/17/2006 11:19:19 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: JZelle
Why aren't American students pursuing degrees in science and technology?

Because whole speudo-sciences such as gender studies and ehtnic studies and sociological hocus-pocus overwhelm even undergrads in technical fields with garbage! Not to mention the junk they get in elementary and high school. There isn't time for robust math and science or even history.

4 posted on 11/17/2006 11:20:58 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: Give therapeutic violence a chance!)
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To: JZelle

The answer, I believe, is the deficiency of the elementary and secondary education system. Kids are so busy being taught why Heather having two mommies is good and getting their little self esteem stroked that they don't have any time to actually learn something practical - like math and science.

As a result, they have to spend the first year in college catching up on what they should have learned in high school - between political indoctrination sessions.


5 posted on 11/17/2006 11:21:49 AM PST by SargeK
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To: JZelle

"In Asia, they are forced to learn the math and sciences early. Americans have the choice to stay away from it."
____________________________________________

There was a posting earlier that Math was being "railroaded" because the "Experts" decided to introduce a new way of doing math, that encourages "creativity". The trend is to go back to the traditional way of teaching math but the "Experts" want to mix the two.


6 posted on 11/17/2006 11:23:10 AM PST by Vinny (You can't compromise with evil.)
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To: JZelle

Why would a education system, run by Democrat druid enviromentalist, self esteem hustling, union members produce students capable of degrees in science or engineering?


7 posted on 11/17/2006 11:24:25 AM PST by Leisler
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To: Vinny

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=+math&ok=Search&q=quick&m=all&o=time&SX=455e0c571aa349789d94a193d73321a0f5f38b33


8 posted on 11/17/2006 11:25:30 AM PST by Vinny (You can't compromise with evil.)
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To: Vinny

With so much of this work being sent overseas, why would anyone pursue work in these fields anymore.


9 posted on 11/17/2006 11:25:50 AM PST by DonaldC
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To: JZelle
Plenty of Chinese-American and Indian-American students are pursuing science and tecnology degrees at my daughter's school.
10 posted on 11/17/2006 11:25:51 AM PST by syriacus (Millions in South Korea are free because 30,000 US troops DIED in 3 years under TRUMAN.)
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To: Vinny

Or rather:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738479/posts


11 posted on 11/17/2006 11:26:27 AM PST by Vinny (You can't compromise with evil.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Right on the bullseye. Graduate students come from the ranks of cheap foreign applicants and hard dollar funding from campuses go to minorities only. Many of the best and brightest students move directly to the work world after undergraduate education because they are not offered the same opportunities or an appropriate level of funding to pursue graduate degrees.


12 posted on 11/17/2006 11:30:11 AM PST by Neoliberalnot
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To: Vinny

Americans have the choice to stay away from it - my daughters teacher called us this week and said she was very concerned that although our daughter knows her numbers (1-20) she does not know how to use them ie add subtract etc., (she turned 5 in Sept.) I think they are being overburdened as it is. If 2 billion Chinese or Indians want to do it, fine, let them.


13 posted on 11/17/2006 11:30:43 AM PST by SF Republican
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To: JZelle

I blame the feminists for our decline in science dominance. They pushed girls to take science and math classes that were way, way too hard for them and then screamed until the classes were made easy enough for the girls to pass. Now the curriculum is so dumbed down that we can't complete. The public school system sucks, but at least my kids are getting abstinence only education now.


14 posted on 11/17/2006 11:31:19 AM PST by DurstMiller
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To: DonaldC

Companies like Microsoft and Intel claim that they are sending work overseas because of the shortage of such skills here in the US. It could be true or it is just "cover" to justify sending work overseas where it can be performed cheaper.


15 posted on 11/17/2006 11:33:29 AM PST by Vinny (You can't compromise with evil.)
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To: Brilliant
What!? The faux "academicians" are screaming at the anti-AA that's going on now.

Start eliminating aid for degrees in Marxism, Victimology, Shake Downology, Navel Gazing, Anti-Americanism,
etc., and there'll be hell to pay.

I'd like to see colleges penalized for overpaying administrators. Picking a limit out of the air to tick
them off, base it on the Department of Defense payroll rates.

Any thing over, they lose some prorative tax exempt status during the overpayment employment, plus 2.5 years
afterward, and a reduction in ability to hire/enroll foreigners.

That would sure to get some sphincters tightening, and maybe some college costs as well.

16 posted on 11/17/2006 11:37:51 AM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Neoliberalnot
When I was in grad school (Information Systems) there were two program-level scholarships available to me:

1) The Minority Student Scholarship
2) The Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship.

I never managed to qualify for either of them.

17 posted on 11/17/2006 11:40:03 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

The cost for graduate level courses in any discipline is crazy.


18 posted on 11/17/2006 11:42:10 AM PST by DonaldC
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To: DurstMiller
I blame the feminists for our decline in science dominance.

It was the Pill.

19 posted on 11/17/2006 11:42:34 AM PST by RightWhale (RTRA DLQS GSCW)
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To: JZelle

The hippies took over the education system in the 1960s, now the harvest of nincompoops in the professions. Also, there is a "good old boy" network in US science that fights creative work tooth and nail. The USPO and DOE should have been cleaned out years ago. Instead they p*** away billions on yucca mountain/glassification plant at hanford when CF/LENR solved the problem years ago, and ITER/CTNF which has always been 50 years in the future, and always WILL be 50 years in the future. Even in the new energy field we KNOW we have to go to europe for funding, there is no hope here in the "good old boy" US...


20 posted on 11/17/2006 11:42:37 AM PST by timer
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