For those who are Optonline customers, or for Newsday subscribers, you may read this article on the Newsday website:
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/the-world-passed-our-students-by-1.2651319?p=
The title of the piece is different in the print edition ("We're putting our students at a disadvantage") and in the website edition ("The world passed our students by"), yet both titles are supported by the article written by Anne Michaud. She points out how other nations are increasingly giving their students an advantage over American students, and she identifies some significant differences in US approaches toward education versus those of a number of other nationalities.
In my view, her critical paragraphs are those which follow:
"By the time American students reach eighth grade, they've spent roughly 400 fewer days in school. So there's a lot of pressure on teachers to cover subjects in a shorter time, and in less depth.
Not coincidentally, perhaps, middle school is where American students begin to fall behind their global peers. By high school, among 30 developed nations, U.S. students rank 15th in reading, 21st in science, 25th in math and 24th in problem-solving.
People who study these trends, like Education Secretary Arne Duncan, believe that the United States has stood still while others have moved past us. In an October speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Duncan said, "Here in the United States, we simply flat-lined. We stagnated. We lost our way, and others literally passed us by."
So while people of my generation might say to ourselves, "We didn't know much math, and we turned out OK," we'd be missing the point. The rest of the world is changing. We need to prepare our children for a knowledge economy."
This brings us back to the Japanese concept of Kaizen, or Continuous Improvement, which I have mentioned at various times. It is one of the principal reasons that the Japanese automotive industry was able to leap-frog past the American industry in the 1980's and 90's, but that is now also being practiced in Detroit, as well as by other American industrial companies.
Stagnation in effort, and stagnation in ideas, can only "work" when others are equally lazy or non-inventive. What you and I did in school, years ago, is not sufficient for the generation(s) which follow us, and if you want to help your children and grandchildren succeed in an increasingly global marketplace of employment and opportunity, then some dramatic changes will be required.
Her complete article is worth your consideration.
