Free Republic

The White House will be holding a conference to encourage toy companies and the media to “break down gender stereotypes” because not enough girls are choosing to pursue careers in STEM fields. The one-day conference, sponsored by the White House Council on Women and Girls, the Department of Education, and the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California will try to address the “gender gaps in our workforce.” According to the White House, it is a tremendous problem that only 29 percent of those in some of the “highest-paying, most in-demand” STEM fields are women....

Who needs algebra? That question muttered by many a frustrated student over the years has become a vigorous debate among American educators, sparked by a provocative new book that argues required algebra has become an unnecessary stumbling block that forces millions to drop out of high school or college. “One out of 5 young Americans does not graduate from high school. This is one of the worst records in the developed world. Why? The chief academic reason is they failed ninth-grade algebra,” said political scientist Andrew Hacker, author of “The Math Myth and Other STEM Delusions.” Hacker, a professor emeritus...

Downtown, sprawling factories are constant reminders of this city’s past life. A few decades ago these massive buildings were owned by tobacco companies and bustling with blue-collar workers. After the tobacco business contracted in the second half of the 20th century, and factory jobs disappeared or were relocated, the buildings—and much of Durham’s downtown—were abandoned.

A doctoral candidate at the University of North Dakota published a paper suggesting that we should make Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses more “inclusive” of women by making then “less competitive,” which is about the most sexist thing I’ve ever heard. “There is an opportunity for STEM courses to reduce the perception of courses as difficult and unfriendly through language use in the syllabi, and also as a guide for how to use less competitive teaching methods and grading profiles that could improve the experience of female students,” Laura Parson wrote in the paper.

The Clinton family charities have outsourced many U.S. white-collar jobs to foreign college graduates instead of hiring American college graduates. The outsourcing started in 2004 and it continues to this year. When asked if the foundation is still hiring foreign white-collar workers via the controversial H-1B visa program, Vena Cooper, one of the foundation’s personnel officers, responded “We do.”

Abbott Labs, a global healthcare company, is laying off about 180 IT employees after signing an agreement with Wipro, a major India-based IT services firm, to take over some IT services. The employees were told about the planned cuts on Feb. 22; their last day will be April 22.

President Barack Obama is launching a version of "take your child to work day" that's focused on America's science laboratories instead of its corporate workspaces. It's part of Obama's effort to encourage young people, especially girls and minorities, to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. [...] The students, including from communities aligned with Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative, will participate in mentoring sessions, hands-on experiments and other activities. My Brother's Keeper is a public-private initiative started by Obama to help boys and young men of color stay on the right path. The White House Council...

Prof. Susan Engel, a psychologist, author and educator, published a controversial article in Bloomberg. The headline was "Want kids to learn math? STOP teaching it." http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-06/want-kids-to-learn-math-stop-teaching-it My local paper picked it up and I had a very violent reaction: that is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in a newspaper and, as you know, that covers a lot of ground. Later, when I went to Bloomberg to check on the comments, I was pleased to see many other people reacted as I did. Independent George wrote: 'This is quite possibly the worst educational advice I've ever read. I don't...

His name is Morgan, but it hasn’t always been his name. What it was before doesn’t legally matter any longer. What does matter, to us, is the concentric circles by which “Morgan” arrived…came to be. Morgan doesn’t know any better. Many metaphors of consciousness can be applied, but for Morgan, your arguments on his condition fall outside of his realm of concern. Morgan is Morgan, and what Morgan does in the present is all that matters. What might have been his reality, to you, before “the incident,” is simply pabulum to Morgan. To Morgan, you are children trying to complete...

There are currently 6.5 million more students in the U.S. with bachelor's degrees than there are jobs available that require such degrees, including jobs expected to be created by 2022, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), but the Obama administration is still expanding programs to encourage even more foreign students to stay in the U.S. and work after graduation. There were 35,632,000 Americans age 25-64 with bachelor's degrees in 2014. If you include people age 20-24 and 65 years and older, the number grows to 45,176,000, according to the BLS statistics, reported The Washington Free Beacon....

The Department of Homeland Security is readying a plan to expand a program that pays U.S. employers to hire foreign STEM students taught in America, a move that could end up punishing American college grads and even the elderly, according to an immigration think tank. Currently, the program urges companies to hire STEM students for a year. CIS said firms are paid up to $10,000 to participate. The new proposal, said CIS, is to add on another year and $2,000 in bonuses.

I have been wanting to learn a little bit about robotics. I have been looking at the Lego Mindstorms kit, but they are kind of pricy. I can get a Lego NXT 2.0 Intelligent Brick on eBay for $60. Would that be enough to get started and use other components I salvage elsewhere? What are other good education kits?

... Between today and Oct. 15, DHS needs to reach out to interested parties, finalize the proposed rule, respond to comments, make a final decision, create the final rule, and get White House Office of Management and Budget approval, Miano said. There is an expectation among some immigration attorneys that the White House may seek to broaden the rule and expand it beyond 17 months, an action that Ian Macdonald, an immigration attorney at Greenberg Traurig, said may happen. Macdonald said the U.S. can meet the deadline. "We understand that a new rule will be released in late September or...

Washington - There has been an astounding 32 per cent increase this year in the number of students flocking to American universities for higher studies. It is the biggest increase from any single country for the year, although in overall terms, China still tops the table in a big way. Figures just released by the US Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) indicate that 149,987 Indian students are currently enrolled in American universities of a total of 1.05 million. Chinese students number 301,532. When it comes to the highly-coveted STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) stream, it is Indian students...

In recent months, Christopher Scalia in the Wall Street Journal and Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post have defended studying the liberal arts in college, primarily to confront advocates of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Zakaria’s article previewed his new book, “In Defense of a Liberal Education.” From my perspective as a former engineer, two caveats arise regarding their pleas: first, “liberal” education that involves “critical thinking” disappeared decades ago, to be replaced by hyper-sensitive grievance mongering; second, the quantitative reasoning STEM occupations develops also facilitates the understanding of trade-offs people need to make rational decisions among myriad conflicting...

Six democrats are seeking to grant Pell Grants to inmates in prison. They claim that it will make them desirable applicants to companies when they get out of prison. Hey liberals, believe it or not companies aren’t clamoring for graduates of Stu’s University online even if they haven’t knocked off a bank or raped small children. So, why would these cons be employable? Of course, if they were to take computer classes they might stop mugging senior citizens and join the growing identity theft industry. It’s also important to know that there is not an endless pool of money in...

A pair of researchers from Cornell decided to test the theory that there is a bias against women pursuing academic careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and found that there is none. “Results revealed a 2:1 preference for women by faculty of both genders across both math-intensive and non-math-intensive fields, with the single exception of male economists, who showed no gender preference,” Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci wrote in an article published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They surveyed “873 tenure-track faculty (439 male, 434 fmale) from biology, engineering, economics...

March 14 was Albert Einstein’s birthday, a scientific legend known worldwide whose name has become synonymous with the word ‘genius.’ How many Einsteins are growing up in America’s public schools today but are hindered from reaching their full potential due to poor education policy? Today, some states are leading the way in improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education to keep this from happening. Indiana, one of America’s highest performing states regarding educational options and student achievement, has prioritized and fostered STEM education for years. Under the leadership of Governor Mike Pence, Indiana has implemented new academic standards at...

The number of students graduating with STEM degrees already far exceeds the number of STEM jobs available but powerful interests in the business community are pushing Congress to allow more foreign skilled workers into the country. Congress is considering new immigration laws that would flood the U.S. with “guest workers” from the Middle East and Asia, a plan some are calling an open invitation for jihadists to walk right through America’s front door. Critics say lawmakers – including top Republican leaders – are playing with fire and could jeopardize national security with the proposals to double or even triple...

Targeting stagnant wages in an otherwise improving economy, President Barack Obama on Monday called on employers, educational institutions and local governments to develop a home grown high technology workforce that could help drive up higher-income employment. The effort aims to attack a stubborn downside of the current economic recovery and fill what the White House says is a gaping demand for high-tech workers in the United States. […] Obama has obtained commitments from more than 300 employers as well as local governments in 21 regions of the country to train and hire low-skilled workers for jobs in software development, network...