Is America harmed by low performance of our students in math, science,engineering? What can we do to fix it?

Question

I teach college classes part time, and am discouraged by how many high school graduates are so poorly prepared for college. I am concerned about our ability as a nation to compete in the future.

It seems that half of the freshmen are taking remedial math classes to learn things they should have learned in high school.

Answer 1

I was educated in the British system, and I can tell you this. Passing was never guaranteed. I attended university in the US for 4 years, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that if some of these college kids had to go to school in the British system, they wouldn't last a day.

For one, they teach kids to integrate and differentiate using a freaking TI calculator. That is beyond belief. Basic concepts are not emphasized enough. Even here in Y!A, people focus on final answers rather than proper methodology. It's a culture that needs to be changed. I've proctored exams where the student would throw away his working at the end of the exam and just submit the final answers. And I'm thinking, "What the hell are you doing? How do you expect to get credit with just a final answer?"

What can "we" do to fix it? Hmmm.
How about importing brains from overseas?

Answer 2

I think we're already losing our status as the scientific and technological leader of the world, and our economic supremacy will plummet rapidly as a consequence. Like global warming, it's already too late to correct it before the effects hit us. Even if the country starts a crash program to reverse course, countries such as Japan and China can be expected to surpass the United States, so that it's going to be rough in regaining that competitive edge that we're squandering right now.

What can we do to fix the problem? The very first thing we need to do is to convince everybody, especially the students in school, that we are no longer "the best and brigthest" in the world, and in fact we're barely mediocre. It's true that self-esteem is important, but we don't boost self-esteem through deception and denial. The second thing is harder----convincing students and Americans in general that science, including competency in the "hard fields", IS very important, even a matter of national security. We had that strong feeling from even before WW2 through the space program in the 1960s, but since then that's eroded. Today, many students openly attack science, or are uninterested in it as being irrelevant. All anyone has to do to see that is to take a look at a typical book store today, and see how many "hard field" books are there. It's shrunk over the years. Most young people believe that the future lies in computers. That is, computer games and the internet. Well, guess what? Even the Chinese are getting really good at that too! On top of being technically and scientifically proficient.

Unless students understand that 1) they're actually not doing that well right now and could do far better, and 2) understand and believe the importance of science and technology, I don't see there's much hope..

Answer 3

To your first question, are we harmed economically? No, because we've been able to fill the need for engineers by importing talent from overseas. This has had a twofold effect. First, it bolsters our competitiveness in the tech industry by lowering labor costs and allowing U.S. business to compete in a global market place. Secondly, it places a "brain drain" on the countries where these most talented engineers are being drawn from, making foreign markets less able to compete with the U.S. in the global market.

Is our national security at risk? Absolutely. While the steady influx of foreign engineers have been able to keep us in the technology race, our military, intelligence, and defense is overwhelmingly dependent on technology. I think most Americans would be appalled at the number of foreign-born engineers who hold high level security clearances, employed in our nation's defense industries. Don't misunderstand me...I truly believe a lot of foreign-born engineers love this country even more than people born here. But the reality is, do you want a communist Chinese engineer writing software for the F-22 avionics? I'm all for him working at Microsoft, but let's keep our national security secrets within a domestic framework...that's all I'm saying. Rememeber, these guys and gals might be going "home" someday, and they will be taking with them a wealth of information ...American education, industry experience, and...military secrets? How far advanced do we really want to remain in the world technology arena? When all other countries have "smart" weapons and can "project force" on the USA with impunity, is that a problem? I guess it all depends on your perspective.

Has our position as a world leader in technology been harmed? Well, if you even have to ask that question, you obviously haven't been paying very close attention over the past 10 years.

So what can be done to fix it? Well, there's no solution that will be devoid of political, social, and economic consequences. The biggest problem we have right now is first admitting that we even have a problem. And if people are unable to understand the scope and impact of the problem, there's little chance to correct it.

In a free-market system (according to economic theory), the supply and demand curve is kept in equilibrium by a varying value of the product or service. However, that system was bastardized by government and industry when they began importing technology workers rather than improving our education system to fill the need, and allowing the labor market to be driven by free-market economics. We can now hire a foreigner for less than half of what we would pay a domestic engineer. This has had a tremendous impact on flattening or even lowering overall engineering salaries. So what is the incentive for a young person to work and study very hard to become competent in a field where the labor supply has become a common commodity? I remember being awakened in college many times at 2 - 4 in the morning when the business and admin students next door were getting too rowdy in one of their drunken poker games, and I had to be at a thermodynamics class by 8 a.m. They probably make 2-3 times more salary now than I do. I couldn't, with a clear conscience, encourage a young person to take up an engineering curriculum today. Yeah, it's that bad.

I think you better get used to the way things are. As long as businesses are making money and have the say on how the government makes labor policy, there will not be a perceived "problem" that needs to be fixed. We need to accept the fact that in a global economy, the days of the USA being the world technology leaders will be over within this generation.

On the plus side, if "spreading it around" has positive and profound effects on the social, economic, and political systems of other countries, then it hasn't been a total loss. After all, we all like cheap technology, don't we? I'm all for that.

Answer 4

There is a certain segment of our society that believes they should be able to make money off of EVERYTHING directly, including turning our education system into a PROFITABLE system. In effect, they want to make money from educating children as our universities already do.

Combined with their obsessive hatred for paying taxes the result is a desire to kill the "public" schools and replace them all with private schools. There will be NO competition - only cutthroat business the way that WalMart cuts the throats of local business by selling low-quality trash at discount prices. The average consumer doesn't know when they're getting screwed.

During the years that I was in the public school system my Dad was a teacher. By comparing what we observed we realized that "The Powers That Be" were conducting a campaign to "dumb down" the public schools; first, so that mediocre children of rich families could get better grades and get admitted to prestigious universities; second, to convince Americans to hate our school system and accept a 'profit-oriented' replacement where large corporations will charge more for under-educating our children than the tax-based system ever could.

It's called "Free Market Capitalism" and they don't care about quality so much as quantity. The Free Market Pirates will be totally free to raise prices and more of the public will be enslaved to minimum-wage paychecks.

After WWII our schools were expanded and enhanced by a growing economy where large corporations paid taxes on their profits. As a result, Americans were better educated than anyone in the world and led in virtually all industries and sciences through the 1960's & '70's. One unexpected result was the free thinking that led to the Free Speach Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the AntiWar Movement and other so-called "counter cultures" that threatened the dictatorship of the status quo.

The dumbing down started in the 1970's as part of the "privatization" agenda of the Chicago School of Economics cult-like worship of an inhuman Pirate named Milton Friedman.

When I was in Elementary school the catch phrase was "Liberal Education" which meant the broadest education possible for the greatest number of students. By the time I was out of High School the catch phrase was "Fundamentals" meaning reading, writing and arithmatic ONLY.

Any program that encouraged creative thinking was slashed and schools were turned into zombie factories.

Answer 5

Yes, America is harmed. It is appalling to see the poor performance of our youth in school. Games take up to much of their time, and there seems to be to few who are willing to stand up to them to take these things away from them and make them study. Pleasure has become the number one past time, and it is making America second rate to even third world countries. Our politicians need to stop pandering for votes by enacting things like the "no child left behind" program. The problem with that program is that most of our kids are being left behind because there appears to be no reason to excel. There is the idea that the world or country does owe them a life, and that idea needs to be destroyed. Parents need to be at home more to be with their kids to help them with not just school work, but control as well. The social problems of 50 or more years ago were nothing compared to what they are today. There was a lot more discipline for the kids then, and a much more ordered society. Kids had to work for what they got, rather than having it handed to them. If a kid works for a reward, they appreciate it, and take care of it. The issues seen begin at home, and that is where the cure needs to begin.

Answer 6

A big part of the problem is there is an attitude among high school students that learning is not cool and that this country owes them something.
This atmosphere really hurts those that really want to learn.
Can you imagine trying to learn something in classes with constant interruptions by these group of kids that dont want to learn. That is why college kids are unprepared... they have nobody spending time preparing them and they dont know til they get there that their not.
I suggest you talk to the leaders of the college you teach at... to maybe offer pre college courses for the students that cant make the grade in college course classes

Answer 7

Students must be taught from day one, in their kindergarten class. As a "new baby" has to learn things in all areas, and is thus "ignorant." So, man is proclaimed the same. For some reason, math is not addressed in a serious manner. We as Americans, have a deep problem where "math" is concerned. Once that deficit is addressed, then all of us will be the better for the learning of it. Peace, Love and God Bless.

Answer 8

As a teacher of 14 plus years you need cut any power the teacher unions have. They are the most anti-child groups out there. Next you need to go to school choice. This would force the school dist. to compete with each other making them all better. And that is the fact that is the big cover up about school choice. The schools and union don't want to have to compete with each others so they talk about the money that would be taken out of the school which is so small that it would not show up on most school dist budgets.

Answer 9

In the documentary SuperSize Me, the guy eats nothing but McDonald's for 30 days and he almost died of liver failure. In the documentary, they go to a high school for wayward kids with discipline problems. The kids had poor attention spans, poor grades, and little interest in their education. They changed the diet served in the cafeteria to nutritious foods and the kids attention spans improved, their performance got better, and they had much more interest in education. It's the food. It would be interesting to find out what kinds of foods are prepared in other country's schools to see how they compare to the sugar and pre-cooked government issued foods that are not cooked, but rather assembled, in American schools.

Answer 10

All the rhetoric ranting (below) is for nothing. Dumbing down our society has always been a goal of the zionist cultural marxists. From the days of Herbert Marcuse to the glorification of degenerates like Alan Ginsberg, they have set the path forward.