But there are other factors which are clearly dominant - China basically switched from an inefficient communist planning economy old Soviet style to a market economy (although personal freedoms, freedom of speech etc. are not up to Western standards). THAT is the main cause. The economic success would not have been possible without a good standard of education, but do you have any evidence to show that their standard of education during the communist economy times was worse than it is now? If you do not, then the standard of education stayed the same, but their economic system changed and that is what, in reality, caused the economic growth.
Our education is more like glorified day care. Lock and load, fire and forget. Everyone gets a gold star even if you're an idiot, but let's beat up the geek who has more gold stars.
Certainly - I didn't mean to suggest that education alone will create economic growth. But a capitalist economy requires an educated base to innovate and grow; even though much of China is simply manufacturing now, it's transitioning to high-tech, especially with green energy and the like. That process is based on having an educated base of people to do that. A shift to manufacturing can only take a country so far - China has and is going beyond that. That's not to say China has surpassed the US. But whereas we had a huge advantage in this area in the past, we no longer do. Given their sheer volume of people, if we are equally efficient and equally knowledgable, China will easily surpass the US. So having that advantage shrink with each successive generation means that China gets closer and closer to the US, which is exactly what we are seeing. This article about the Reagan era Socrates project is fairly interesting on this topic: http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/06/an-unfinished-legacy-president-reagan-and-the-socrates-project/ Though it's more about government philosophy, it's core premise is the need to be the dominant technological innovator.
My two cents... This is partly what happens when the system is geared towards teaching to the test. The standards have gotten tougher at younger ages. 3rd graders required to know, understand and apply the formula for finding volume etc. People believe that increasing the standards will make students do better. The lessons are then designed to get the test materials taught so the students can do well on the tests, but with more and tougher standards there isn't enough time to teach a deeper understanding. For example perimeter: Most kids can add up the sides and tell you what the perimeter is. But if you give them the perimeter and an octagon with one measurement missing and ask them what the measurement of the missing side is they will get the question wrong. It's still perimeter but requires a deeper understanding. Give the students time to develop that kind of understanding and you've helped their whole thinking process not just taught an algorithm. But with everything being geared towards the tests and those results then there isn't time get in depth enough for most students. That is one of the problems. There are many others too.
This is exactly it, in my opinion. We teach kids to memorize instead of think critically. Fixing this requires re-evaluating the entire way we believe in educating, rather than simply throwing more money at the problem.
Yep! this TED talk totally hits on this problem. http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
There was nothing wrong about what bigtexxx said - in fact, he correctly hinted at the fact that there are other predominant factors in China's case, and Major later had to concede this, after he had first made it seem that China's economic growth is caused by an allegedly better education system.
I love this specious, short-term reasoning. "Hey, they told us we were getting dumb 30 years ago and our empire hasn't collapsed yet, so they must be wrong!"
Maybe other countries' parents just care a crapload more about kid's education than Americans do. Seemes to me like if my dad didn't give a crap about my education then i won't give a crap about my kid's. We have more important stuff to worry about like those mexican stealing our minimum wage jobs that we now need because my daddy didn't give a **** about my education.
Homer: Well, there's not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is sure doing its job. Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, sweetie. Lisa: Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers. Homer: Uh-huh, and how does it work? Lisa: It doesn't work. It's just a stupid rock. Homer: I see. Lisa: But you don't see any tigers around, do you? Homer: Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock.
People have been predicting America's decline for 30 years. Has not happened. Another problem is that this is not always a zero sum game. Just because other countries have become more prosperous that does not mean America is going down the tubes. China ranks only 130th in per capita GDP. It's only about half of Mexico's.
Some of us are thinking a little further down the road. It can take several decades, if not centuries, for this stuff to bear fruit, and even longer to correct for it, certain parts of the middle east around the end of the first millennium come to mind.
It is time to terminate the government school complex.http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/ Roger Ebert gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "What struck me most of all was Geoffrey Canada's confidence that a charter school run on his model can make virtually any first-grader a high school graduate who's accepted to college. A good education, therefore, is not ruled out by poverty, uneducated parents or crime- and drug-infested neighborhoods. In fact, those are the very areas where he has success." <object width="853" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZKTfaro96dg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZKTfaro96dg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853" height="505"></embed></object>
30 years ago I had just moved from 8-tracks to cassettes. Now I have an iPod. 30 years ago, I got channel 3 out of Bryan/CS, 2 and 11 out of Houston, and occasionally 8 and 13 if the antenna was acting OK. Now, I have satellite TV and hundreds of channels... with a remote! So duh, we're still getting smarter and stuff.
he didn't hint to anything and didn't respond to major's response. but I'm sure he's happy you have his back
