Posted on 12/05/2005 7:01:55 PM PST by voletti
Intel Chairman Craig Barrett urges businesses to get involved in American education -- for their own sakes as well as the nation's. One of the highlights of my year each spring is getting to meet the 40 finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) competition. Spending time with these high school seniors, I can't help but feel optimistic about the future of American ingenuity. Some of them may win Nobel prizes, Fields Medals, National Medals of Science, and MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grants." They may be teenagers, but the brilliance of their work makes my own PhD dissertation look dim in comparison. But their achievements do not tell the whole story about the American education system. The Intel STS finalists are the exception, not the rule. In fact, American K-12 students are consistently outperformed by their foreign counterparts on international math and science assessments.
ERODING RESOURCE. We also have a graduation gap: While the number of jobs requiring technical skills is increasing, fewer American students are entering -- and graduating from -- degree programs in science, math, and engineering.
Why does this matter? Science and technology are the engines of economic growth and national security in the U.S., and we are no longer producing enough qualified graduates to keep up with the demand. These graduates -- like the Intel STS students -- represent a resource vital to American competitiveness that is eroding at home while being produced more rapidly and efficiently abroad.
For the past three decades, about one-third of U.S. bachelor's degrees have been granted in science and engineering. Asian nations far outstrip that figure, with China at 59% in 2001, South Korea at 46% in 2000, and Japan at 66% in 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
That is terrible. Iowa does have a great reputation for education, but I guess the Reagents have succumb to the dark side of univeristy funding. My old man taught at the equivalent of a community college / vocational school. 20 years ago, they were doing the same thing. They eliminated the welding program in favor of expanding the beautician program. The decision was based strictly on student interest. More high school girls wanted to be hair dressers and cometologists than there were guys who wanted to be welders. And that is in Windsor, the automotive heart of Canada! My point is that the colleges and universities are looking at things through the bean counter's eyes. Science: expensive, difficult and limited enrollment. Social studies: high enrollment with low cost and overhead. Science gets the axe in order to balance the books. Meanwhile, the degrees that actually offer employable knowledge and skills dissappears and the univeristy ultimately loses it's reputation. Hope they change their mind before it's too late. If it hits the graduate schools, the professors will take their research elsewhere.
Democrat solution: make math and science courses easier to pass. That'll get lots in. Who cares if they all suck?
"He was saying modern pilots these day couldn't navigate from first principles even if their life depended on it. "
While I agree that computers are relied upon now more than ever, every pilot flying today has used an analog flight calculator hundreds of times to plot out a course and knows how to navigate the old-fashioned way quite well. Sounds like he was patting himself on the back with a dose of exaggeration.
I don't think telling time would be considered "Advanced" in any sector of society.
I am waiting for a result on that case. I have no problems w/withholding federal funds from schools that don't allow military recruiting.
I think the federal 'subsidizing' is more in terms of federal student loans. If the schools aren't approved for federal loans, their enrollment will drop tremendously; few students can afford law school w/o a loan.
Perhaps you should have minored in coaching high-school football.
Well, any public school that owns a law school if funded by government. I don't see any reason to fund law schools with public funding. We've got lawyers running out of our ears.
I said advanced in relationship to autism.
We have a lot of people (more than I care to think about) that can't read above 5th grade level or do basic multiplication tables, clueless about fractions, can't count back change, etc ad nauseum. Now, are they retarded or are they uneducated?
You are living in a vacuum if you seriously believe that there are not people out there of average intelligence that can't use an analog clock.
Sure, but they know the Harry Potter riddles.
Of course, INTEL was founded by an immigrant, not a product of American schools.
Our schools are too busy teaching kids how to feel, and what to feel. They have no time for that dead white male process of facts, logic and thinking that produces people who won't confess their crimes of insensitivity.
You are living in a vacuum if you seriously believe that there are not people out there of average intelligence that can't use an analog clock.
So I'm asking my respected friends here...am I living in a vacuum?
I suppose dyslexics or legally blind people can't read an analog wall clock...there must be other dysfunctional conditions that would prevent it.
But beyond such exotic cases, I would think that anyone of average intelligence can read an analog clock or can be taught to do so within a day or two.
Basically, Hildy, I'm agreeing with you.
I have heard of kids who had trouble because they had no experience with them. I have also heard they have trouble with concepts like 10 to 3...instead of 2:50.
But I hadn't heard of a 17 year old with this problem. My 10 year old Catechism class students seem to read the analog clock in our classroom just fine. But if they never use analog clocks or watches, I guess it could happen.
Kids today have trouble making coin change, in part because coins don't have so much value nowadays, so figuring out the various ways to come up with a quarter to get a coke just isn't in their life experience.
Wanna insist on making generalizations about people? Chances are you won't find much to generalize about. There's all kinds of people out there so in can't say there cannot exist a 17 yr old of avg intelligence who can't read an analog clock. Its possible certainly but likely? maybe not.
Hope that helps.
Not much to offer other than have you ever tried to get a cashier give you correct change if the register doesn't offer the the exact amount on the display?
Honestly, I've never really had a problem with that. But if it did, I wouldn't consider that person to be of "average" intelligence.
In grade school my granddaughter benefitted from a teacher who loved math and loved the kids and loved to teach. She taught her class for 3 yrs and their class tested #1 in the state and my granddaughter had the 2nd highest score. Now in Jr High she is in a math, engineering and science organization.
I just hope she sticks with it but she already talks about boys and cheerleading and dancing but she's still a good student. I'm sure her parents won't let her slouch too much.
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