america, china, and technology

This is a carryover from my previous post but is worth addressing on its own. When it comes to the complexion of government, the emphasis of the education system plays a large role. The government has great influence in the shaping of the education system, and the products of that system in turn have great influence over the form and direction of the government. But I hope to address education by itself in more detail here.

In China -- and most of the rest of the world and Asia especially, for that matter -- technical fields and a strong technical background are greatly valued.* The emphasis in the education system reflects this, as students are taught math and science at much higher levels during their younger years and many pursue careers in fields heavily dependent on such education. In the United States, though, math and science education is anemic, near the bottom for industrialized nations (I want to say 37th out of 40 industrialized countries but I can't verify that). In keeping with the example being set by their government, schools are more interested in wiggling around the elephant in the room than addressing it. As a result, less and less American students are pursuing careers in science and technology, those that do are increasingly less equipped to excel in those fields, and the few that eventually get degrees are nowhere near the aptitude of foreigners with comparable years of education.

Friendships I've had with students from other countries support this. For example, my college friend from the United Arab Emirates talked on occasion about how he and his classmates did advanced math in grade school and calculus early in high school, and he had seen advanced mathematics before he even entered college. He thought mathematics education in American schools was a joke. I also remember a German exchange student I had a math class with in high school saying the class was absurdly easy compared to those in his country -- and the teacher was known as one of the hardest at the school. (That's Holmesley for those keeping score at home.) He also mentioned that our school's AP English class was stuff they did as sophomores, so even if it's not as pronounced the problem goes beyond just math and science.

Heck, just for scare tactic purposes, consider that in China 1.5 million engineering graduates enter the workforce annually compared with just 100,000 in the U.S. That's a 15:1 ratio for countries with about a 4:1 population ratio, and the gap has been increasing year by year. And that doesn't even take into consideration the high number of Chinese nationals graduating from American universities. It's barely worth bothering to look at postgraduate degree statistics. Heck, do any Americans even get PhD's anymore? A cursory glance at the authors in any trade society journal would raise the question. This growing disparity at all levels of education ain't gonna correct itself anytime soon, folks, and we haven't yet begun to see what impact that will have on the technological advantage we've taken for granted for a long time. For example, people talk about the Chinese military threat of today and the near future...just wait several years. Forget population growth and natural resources and all that, history has almost always favored those with the best technology.

We all know America's education system is hosed up these days. Which sector of the system is most critical or worst off is up for debate. But let me submit that while non-technological areas like history and writing/rhetoric -- liberal arts if you will, though I'd rather not use that term here -- are important in their own ways, probably more so with regard to personal growth and one's ability to appreciate things beyond what we can see and test, technology is of far greater importance when it comes to confronting the cold realities of the world, such as disease, war, famine, and the like. Neither can be discounted, but for our own sake as a country and the well-being of the rest of the world I'd sure like to see the U.S. start caring about technical fields more. Like it or not, the world and the people that inhabit it are what they are. We'd better be ready to deal with that when the time comes -- especially if those around us will be.

----------
* I've been told recently that America is more or less alone in its devaluing of technical trades and especially engineering, and that in the rest of the world engineers are still held in high esteem and are respected accordingly. But that's another topic for another day.