I'm reading Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat. It is a book about the global economy, how it arrived and where it is going.
Friedman spends considerable pages talking about the declining number of engineering and science graduates in America and the increasing number of such graduates in other, competing countries such as Russia, China, and India. To make matters worse, most of the foreign graduates are educated by American universities. In the past, they would stay and work for American companies. Now many are returning home to help build their nation's economy.
The author cites multiple statistics that say, in a nutshell, that American students are turning away from engineering and science studies while our competitors are producing incredible numbers of scientists and engineers. Why is this so important? Well, these disciplines form the backbone of research and devlopment. Healthy R&D assures the long term success of businesses and economies.
In India and China, it is said to be an honor to become a scientist or engineer (I happen to agree). Friedman quotes several experts that say American students don't think the same way.
So, this is a negative trend (if you believe Friedman) that, in my opinion, must be reversed. Think of it this way. It takes approximately sixteen years to develop a scientist or engineer (twelve years of high school plus four years of college. Add four more years for graduate work). The economy of 2020 is being dictated by what we do in our schools today.
How can we reverse this trend? I believe there needs to be more connection between parents, schools, and professionals (such as engineers). I've always thought of creating a Junior Achievement like program for engineering and science.
I have a vision of a community of engineers and scientists coming together to improve the curriculum of our schools and to reverse the negative trend cited above.
Your thoughts, please.
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This is so ironic, I actually started to read this book while at TTC for my English course. I found it very remarkable on the statements of the number of engineers we have today. But I have to agree that, our economy is being diminished by the idea of "white collar" positions that many young adults are striving for during there early years in college. I think that there needs to be some kind of program for juniors/seniors in high school that are achieving in the science/engineering courses. A structured format needs to be driven by those who have the knowledge and experience in such fields. I know if this had been offered while in high school, I definitely would have been a contender. We have Vocational schools but no specifics geared towards applying the science/engineering courses to a career. This is where we have fallen short in our school systems.
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