America losing brainpower advantage

It's Reddit, so it's probably not.

 

I believe 80% of the top 50 universities in the world are American. Problem is that there is brain drainage, people who are coming here to study are leaving to other countries with better opportunities, guess that was bound to happen with globalization. Keep in mind that among developed countries USA is the 3rd worst in poverty numbers, might have something to do with the report posted in this thread.

 

Clearly the result of affirmative action

[_]Yes
[_]No
[_]Maybe

Fill in the blank?

 

It's cool, science isn't true anyway.

 

exactly.....it teaches you stuff like evolution, and like who would want to learn about that.


I quit my acconting career to go back to school to do engineering, having a blast. Can't stand the bull in accounting, most boring and unsatisfying profession EVER!!!

 

And arguing social equality like helping females get even with males. To the point where females outperform males in school big time. In 40 years, that might be the educational system's best accomplishment. Not saying its bad, its not. Just have to ask if thats a direct end product of the educational system's focus. And if they even DID have a focus, could that same focus applied to science have worked out to improved results.

But its not just education, its definitely also societal attitudes.

 

I've always thought that the basis for America's technological advantage comes from immigrant geniuses. As long as we have the economy to gather the best and the brightest, and actually let them in regardless of whether they look muslim or communist, I think we can keep our advantage. We just have to make sure the best and the brightest come to the US and stay in the US to work for us. If that happens, I don't think our education system matters too much.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case. I remember once listening on NPR that many foreign engineers and computer scientists who wish to come work for high tech companies can't get work visas. Which is a shame.

 

1. world's free-ist environment for idea creation
2. world's fiat currency insures compensation
3. World's top academic endowments
4. world's most desired lifestyle
2. world's most mercenary venture capital system
6. world's best intellectual property laws

 

Not true. You think all those indian student who come here want to go back to India. You better know someone or be able to bribe someone if you want to get anything done in India.

 

They don't go back to India, but they come to Dubai, Canada, Australia.

Dubai has historically either overpaid people to work here or picked up scraps, but nowadays, the average salary package in Dubai seems to have become far far more attractive than the average salary package in the US or UK. The job market used to be dominated by British expats but more and more American/American-educated folks are making their way to the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

There are more options than India and America.

 

We have too many damn distractions in this country. Between the heated debates over things that aren't as major as their coverage they get and reality TV we are becoming dumber. No one is paying any attention to this and the greed corrupting our system. Its Rome all over again.

It seems those actually watching and taking notice are not heard, while the loud, obnoxious and idiotic get one hour programs. If 20 years from now, this country has fallen to China or another nation politically or economically it should be no shock. What we're seeing here is Idiocracy actually happening and yet no one cares.

Palin's election in 2012 will be the final nail in the coffin. I think at that point I will probably move to Spain.

 

Which one, the Civil Rights Act or the 100 years of Jim Crow before it?

 

Until the powers that be stop slavishly adhering to standardized testing as the sole means of assessing student performance, then we'll continue to see the same results....

...that and perhaps, maybe, just a little more funding should be pumped into education as well.

 

I think the US already spends much more money per student than a lot of countries that get superior results.

 

As a black guy, though, I'd really like to see my cohort's numbers get a little higher before we dismiss these things entirely.

 

In order to get into harvard, stanford, yale, or any decent school you need to do well on a standardized test.

 

we will continue to decrease against the world as long as we continue to teach our kids to value money, material possessions, and being cool above education. Either led by parental example, or peer pressure, our kids don't value education like they do in other countries. Too many parents never bother to call or email their kid's teachers back whenever the teacher attempts to contact them. Too many parents never ask their kids if they have homework, or make an attempt to get involved. Teachers can't make kids do homework, or study at home.

I remember a teacher in HS who basically fed us the questions and answers to our history tests the day before. The next day, kids would come in and want to cheat off other people..easiest class in the world..but because they didn't want to pay attention or study, they made poor grades. I saw this all throughout school - they had the same teachers I did, but people love to blame the school system for these kids failures..BS

My mother worked her butt off, studied and took night classes - I was home alone A LOT - but she made darn sure I studied and did my homework, and if there ever was a problem at school..she called them back quickly. Sorry to rant, but school funding and teachers aren't the problems. The fact that schools can't discipline, kids have NO parental involvement, and students no longer value education have far more of a negative influence in our education system than current funding and teacher qualifications.

As far as standardized tests - While we need the tests to assess our educational system - there are too many things tied to the test results which do nothing but force the schools to put too much emphasis on the results. Instead of penalizing teachers and schools that do bad, look at the results and plan ways to increase the scores without penalization.