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My wife teaches technology in a GA high school. From what I have heard from her, in a 'typical' class there will be a handful of bright overachievers that are really sharp and mostly bored by the dull pace of school. Add to the mix a handful of special ed kids who would be thrilled to graduate knowing how to tie their shoes. The vast bulk of the class is made up of 'average' kids whose writing skills are atrocious and who hate math and literature and mostly just hang out doing the minimum until they can get home to microwave some food and continue hanging out.

So out of a class of 30, you might have 2 that will excel in a global marketplace, 25 that will go on to blue collar jobs or make fries, and 3 that will forever live on the incomes of the others. I suspect that in Japan and many other countries you would have a much larger percentage that will excel and a smaller number of french friers.

Please re-analyze your conclusions.

Are you REALLY trying to convince us that the Bell Curve is not operative in India, Japan, and China?

So out of a class of 30, you might have 2 that will excel in a global marketplace, 25 that will go on to blue collar jobs or make fries, and 3 that will forever live on the incomes of the others. I suspect that in Japan and many other countries you would have a much larger percentage that will excel and a smaller number of french friers.

Not really. India and China with 2500 million people has 20 gifted for American 2. They can replace every American worker and more.

My wife teaches technology in a GA high school. From what I have heard from her, in a 'typical' class there will be a handful of bright overachievers that are really sharp and mostly bored by the dull pace of school. Add to the mix a handful of special ed kids who would be thrilled to graduate knowing how to tie their shoes. The vast bulk of the class is made up of 'average' kids whose writing skills are atrocious and who hate math and literature and mostly just hang out doing the minimum until they can get home to microwave some food and continue hanging out.

I taught an class in basic microprocessors and firmware design at a junior college for 3 1/2 years. That distribution of skills sounds like a normal classroom. I usually started with 60 people and about 35 finished. There would be 1 to 3 hotshots who needed minimal direction to succeed at an outstanding level. At the bottom, I had 1 or 2 that were tenacious enough to stay in spite of enormous difficulty in comprehending the subject matter. In the middle, I had trainable people who could follow directions and succeed. The class was dual funded by the college district and the Regional Occupational Program. The ROP folks reported that 91% of the students that completed my class over 3 1/2 years were hired by DEC and IBM. BTW, the age range was 15 to 71. Quite a span of age, experience and maturity.

85 - "So out of a class of 30, you might have 2 that will excel in a global marketplace, 25 that will go on to blue collar jobs or make fries, and 3 that will forever live on the incomes of the others. I suspect that in Japan and many other countries you would have a much larger percentage that will excel and a smaller number of french friers."

No, Sender, I have lived and worked in those countries, and the percentages are about the same as what you generalize. Pretty good generalization, BTW.

What happens, however, is the 2 see the problems, and do their best to get out of them. Thus, when we get the real immigrants, we are getting the 'cream' of the corp. What is happening however, with the illegals from Mexico, we are getting the 'french friers', who didn't have the forsight to get a good education and apply for visas.