In the "New Economy" only CA, WA, and MA score high (schools, college)

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Gotta improve STEM classes in the good ole' USA if you want to 'stem' this tide.

No, that's what we're just told and expected to believe by the WSJ and other arms of the cheap labor lobby. The reality of the matter is that there's no shortage of Americans who can fill tech positions.

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Gotta improve STEM classes in the good ole' USA if you want to 'stem' this tide.
(Pretty clever, huh? I is a smart 'merican.)

Not sure what we should with Mississippi, though. Looking pretty grim for them.

I doubt it's just places like Mississippi, and in fact even better and more STEM classes won't make a bit of difference in the ''lower-end'' of the population, where local cultural attitudes often regard edu-macation as either ''acting white'' (among poor blacks), or becoming a ''city slicker'' and an ''educated elite'' (among poor whites).

And while we're at it, it sure ain't helping when one of the nation's two main political parties is openly hostile to teachers, professors, universities, science, and said ''educated elites''!

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by mateo45

I doubt it's just places like Mississippi, and in fact even better and more STEM classes won't make a bit of difference in the ''lower-end'' of the population, where local cultural attitudes often regard edu-macation as either ''acting white'' (among poor blacks), or becoming a ''city slicker'' and an ''educated elite'' (among poor whites).

And while we're at it, it sure ain't helping when one of the nation's two main political parties is openly hostile to teachers, professors, universities, science, and said ''educated elites''!

This is just a faction of the Republican Party's "Southern wing" who feel that way. Coastal Republicans and Sun Belt Republicans are usually more moderate and practical and do not share those views.

I have bounced back and forth between the two major parties for most of my life and I hold a graduate degree. I am very familiar with the "Knowledge Society" concept.

I am 32 and a Republican now, but I was very active in the Democratic Party in my early 20s and, let me tell you, there are just as many anti-science kooks in that party as there are in the GOP! I had firsthand experience dealing with them. Coincidentally (or not?) these same people denied evolution and basic scientific facts when it didn't suit them. I'm talking more about the rank-and-file members than about the elite in academia, although some of them fit this category also. A lot of the rank-and-file Democrats also view educators with suspicion, they just couch those feelings because they know public schools are free, along with the other entitlements they get. Some of the most viciously anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-Science and anti-White racist comments I've ever heard came out of the mouths of some of these people.

[Senno]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

This is just a faction of the Republican Party's "Southern wing" who feel that way. Coastal Republicans and Sun Belt Republicans are usually more moderate and practical and do not share those views.

I have bounced back and forth between the two major parties for most of my life and I hold a graduate degree. I am very familiar with the "Knowledge Society" concept.

I am 32 and a Republican now, but I was very active in the Democratic Party in my early 20s and, let me tell you, there are just as many anti-science kooks in that party as there are in the GOP! I had firsthand experience dealing with them. Coincidentally (or not?) these same people denied evolution and basic scientific facts when it didn't suit them. I'm talking more about the rank-and-file members than about the elite in academia, although some of them fit this category also. A lot of the rank-and-file Democrats also view educators with suspicion, they just couch those feelings because they know public schools are free, along with the other entitlements they get. Some of the most viciously anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-Science and anti-White racist comments I've ever heard came out of the mouths of some of these people.

But unfortunately for the Republicans it is easily generalized to the whole party. Which their messaging doesn't counter very well as that's the core of the party now.

[mateo45]

And BTW, regardless whatever "regressive" types the Democratic party supposedly may have, at least the party has enough sense not to build those same "regressive" (or "Southern") ideas into their very Platform!! Nor do over half of 'em openly believe that the POTUS is an (uppity) muslim Kenyan....

GOP Approves ‘Most Conservative Platform In Modern History’

[CAVA1990]

Is this based on where people live, work or are headquartered? Those can be in different states for an individual worker. Also, how are folks who work in a virtual environment like my wife and me counted? Our jobs are done across cyberspace from anywhere we choose to be.

[Senno]

I decided you are in Cleveland CAVA. That's cause your names short for Cavalier. And not California/Virginia.

How is Cleveland?

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by mateo45

I doubt it's just places like Mississippi, and in fact even better and more STEM classes won't make a bit of difference in the ''lower-end'' of the population, where local cultural attitudes often regard edu-macation as either ''acting white'' (among poor blacks), or becoming a ''city slicker'' and an ''educated elite'' (among poor whites).

And while we're at it, it sure ain't helping when one of the nation's two main political parties is openly hostile to teachers, professors, universities, science, and said ''educated elites''!

While all that is true, it still leads to a shortage of qualified Americans.

[mateo45]

You bet, and all the more reason we try to change some of those attitudes and focus on technology education again here, much as we did during the Space Race. Otherwise the obvious ''trend'' is towards ''importing'' those kinda skills... or else get left behind. And BTW, regardless, we all still end up helping support all those red state ''left-behinds'' (which IMO might be greatly helped by fed-funded green-tech installer jobs & training)!

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by mateo45

You bet, and all the more reason we try to change some of those attitudes and focus on technology education again here, much as we did during the Space Race. Otherwise the obvious ''trend'' is towards ''importing'' those kinda skills... or else get left behind. And BTW, regardless, we all still end up helping support all those red state ''left-behinds'' (which IMO might be greatly helped by fed-funded green-tech installer jobs & training)!

Well, a big part of the reason can be seen right here on C-D. Notice from time to time all the talk about the jobs of yesteryear. Those jobs aren't coming back and this seems to be a hard pill for some to swallow. Our school system however still largely operates as if it were training the youth for those types of rigid, factory industry type jobs. We still teach our children to conform and become parts of the machine, basically stifling creativity which is exactly what's needed in a more technologically based economy.