Bill Gates quote, Globalization and Education

[Winnow]

I found this Bill Gates quote yesterday while reading the comments about the book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman. In the book, Friedman attempts to cover what has and is happening in the world economy that's "flattening" or globalizing almost everything.

I downloaded the audio version and will listen to it over the next few weeks mixed in with my weekly podcasts and see if it's worth recommending. I think it will be for readers able to ignore any personal opinions that sneak in from the auther and take the information raw.

Gates' quote:

"When I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow. In math and science, our fourth graders are among the top students in the world. By eighth grade, they're in the middle of the pack. By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations. . . . The percentage of a population with a college degree is important, but so are sheer numbers. In 2001, India graduated almost a million more students from college than the United States did. China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S., and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind."

-Bill Gates

"In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears -- and that is our problem."

Fast forward to today. Recently, I used an Adobe (previously Macromedia) application named Captivate to create tutorial/demos of ComicRack and Newsleecher and posted them on VV. It's an excellent and relatively easy to use program to create all sorts of software demos and tutorials that can include various levels of interaction.

Captivate 2 was just released a few days ago so I went onto Adobe's website to grab the demo and check it out. Roaming around on the site, I found a short Flash (SWF) file that introduces the Captivate development team.

Take into account what Bill Gate's said and check out the little flash movie:

http://www.punjabijunction.com/teamc/te ... tivate.asp

Yikes. Americans and Canadians need to start from the grade schools on up and get students refocused or we're screwed. There's no one to hate here except our own laziness. How can you be upset with the citizens of another country for busting their ass?

I added Canada into the mix just to make things more interesting but here's a quote so you know I'm not making things up:

Higher education has been under strain for a number of years in Canada and has reached the point where the system is fraying. Years of underfunding have threatened the quality of university education and research. Large increases in student tuition levels have threatened access to a university education in Canada and dramatically increased student debt levels upon graduation. And there is a looming shortage of new faculty to sustain the system as large numbers of older faculty retire over the next ten years...

...Comparing Canada and the United States, Swail (2004) finds that, while the postsecondary participation rates are very similar between the two countries, university participation rates are considerably higher in the United States (29.4 versus 22.8% in 2000). He also finds that, while costs of attendance at universities are still considerably lower in Canada, student aid (from all sources) covers only 48% of the bill in Canada compared to 60% in the United States, so that out-of-pocket expenses to be covered by the student (and family) are 25% higher in Canada than in the United States.

http://jdi.econ.queensu.ca/Publications ... ation.html

[Deward]

The path of our education system is very troubling. In my town they are asking for a referendum that will raise our eductaion taxes by 40%. I will probably vote for it because I really do support education. THey are also trying to raise $70 million for a new "Justice Center". It really worries me how our government is more willing to spend money on bigger jails than they are on the education system. We may not even get to vote on the new jail, the county executive is trying to avoid a referendum and just build it without asking our permission. $70 million may not sound like much for a big city but my town is only about 30k people. They are saying that this new jail would only last until 2030. I fear for my child's future.

[Siji]

We jail for retribution, not to reform. We'll spend much more money on revenge than we will on educating.