The World Is Flat?
So I'm watching the Daily Show tonight and the guest was New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who was on to talk about his new book, The World Is Flat.
The premise of his book is devoted to the fact that over the years, Americans have become "fat, dumb and lazy" and are not seeing how the opportunities for those in what used to be less-fortunate countries are now opening up mainly because of the internet's accessibility. Once it didn't matter if a kid from Singapore was a genius, he would never become successful in business. With the internet and outsourcing, he is now stepping in and taking opportunities away from less than average Americans who have been riding the coattails of their family's fortunes.
This IMMEDIATELY resonated with me, because for years Kid and I have bitched about how Americans are kept "fat, dumb and happy" in order to be kept quiet. As long as we have fried fast food to eat, we'd rather watch The Bachelorette than know about the genocide in Africa, and we have our beer and big screen TVs, we're pretty cool with whatever the head honchos want to do.
But Thomas Friedman visited those countries and realized the playing field has flattened out where once we were King of the Mountain.
When talking with Jon Stewart, he pointed out how few children are interested in engineering and science. Kids don't want to be astronauts anymore. He offers up fuel independence as the solution to the flattening of the world. By sparking interest in R&D of alternative fuels, not only can Americans continue to secure our children's futures, but at the same time free us from the dependence on the oil we need from the Middle East. We could lead the world again by reawakening our visionaries.
Is it so hard to do?
by MG at 10:44 PM
8 Comments:
Give 'em hell Moxiegrrrl! I like your style!
This administration is all about oil, and appeasing China so they will continue to buy our debt (~$1B/wk). As we were fighting about Clinton's affair, the right took over the administrative & legislative branches of our government, and are now attempting to brow beat the judicial branch so as to place extremists there also. My opinion is that this is a disaster for this country with these folk controlling everything. Intelligent people like MoxieGrrrl are speaking out, but are there enough like her? I don't think so...please prove me wrong.
Yes it is going to be hard to do if people continue to be fat dumb and lazy about when it comes to their own education or their kids. Since all the schools do now is teach to the test, parents today are going to have to actually do more home-schooling just to give their kids the skills they need to survive much less thrive.
Teaching down, teaching to a test or teaching to the lowest common denominator does not make smart people. I thank God every day I came through my schooling before the California system was adopted in whatever fashion anywhere. I was learning to use a dictionary in the second grade, by performing lessons by wrote (copying) and the knowledge makes it easier even today to learn new words, look up strange words in the dictionary, etc. Same for any other courses I had. Kids today don't learn educational skills anymore -- look how many people have to buy the Hooked on Phonics today. When I came through that is how it was done normally so you could learn the phonemes of words and be able to say any word whether you had ever seen it before or not.
Yes it is going to be a monstrous task. We are right back where we were in the 1800's without every child guaranteed a good education. Only rich or subsidized kids in private schools are able to afford any education beyond that designed for tests.
Some links for fun:
http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/education/ (See the one about women graduating at high level than men)
AND...This describes the lunacy of teaching to the test and NCLB better than anything I have found...unfortunately I can't locate the long version that is even funnier. Seriously.
http://www.fcar.info/docs/basketball.htm
Could see the wreck:
I know exactly where you're coming from... I was a Montessori child in the 1970s, but had to go to public school in 2nd grade. I love the Montessori philosophy, but it's really hard to even find true Montessori teachers. I was considering homeschooling my daughter, but I don't have the teaching capabilities. All I can do is help her with her studies and encourage learning opportunities. Education in the US sucks, but it's hard to get the government to change its standards when they want us to stay uneducated - makes us easier to push around.
Jimbo - thanks for the kudos, now start blogging!
Wow. Like, I think I love you. You rock.
Indeterminacy & Dennis!:
Thanks :) Ya makin' me blush. ;p
Nice summary of the book, thanks.
Friedman's book is, I think, declaring that work has now somehow become like the Olympic Games, where we all have no choice but to compete with the very best in the world.
I think you're right, Super Peter - and quite frankly, it's a good thing, if we step up and take action.
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