The New York Times' Tom Friedman again has an interesting article on flattening, this time on the flattening of education. US education, not surprisingly to me, is lagging:
American students in the second quarter of socioeconomic advantage — mostly higher middle class — were significantly outperformed by 24 countries in math and by 15 countries in science, the study found. In the third quarter of socioeconomic advantage — mostly lower middle class — U.S. students were significantly outperformed by peers in 31 countries or regions in math and 25 in science.
But, Friedman is somewhat hopeful, i.e we have shown we can do it (keep up), we just don't do it enough:
The challenge is that changes in the world economy keep raising the bar for what our kids need to do to succeed. Our modest improvements are not keeping pace with this rising bar. Those who say we have failed are wrong. Those who say we are doing fine are wrong.” The truth is, America has world-beating K-12 schools. We just don’t have nearly enough.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/opinion/friedman-my-little-global-school.html?_r=0
Friedman may be a little simplistic here...but it is a conversation we should be having nationally. I still like the fact that the world beats a path to the U.S. shores for higher education.
ReplyDeleteAgree, Friedman is great for starting conversations. The U.S. has the creativity+initiative+confidence unparalleled in the world. Our secret is application of knowledge and transfer of knowledge...
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