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No surprise! It just points to the shift in knowledge, research and ultimately in power that will happen over next two generations.
I migrated to US from Asia for a better future and my kids will migrate back to Asia in 25 years for their better future. How things change in two generations!
And you see this as "new news"? It's been so for at least three decades.
What is new and alarming to me is that while the US performance remains the same, other countries are improving and will surpass us, so we are actually dropping. Also alarming, that many people in this country do not see the value of investing more in our education system--other cultures that do value education are performing well. I saw some Asian kids interviewed, and the reason doing well is important to them is very culturally instilled, and it is not in the US.
That being said, I think that, as noted in the WP, the study itself has some flaws.
You all wonder why companies won't touch the young crop blossoming today? Inflated sense of self worth coupled with below average thinking skills... These companies better figure out how to automate everything, and in a hurry if they want to compete with these Asian countries...
When a child answers a problem incorrectly in school, he/she is told they were wrong, but they get an A for effort. When they get a job and make a mistake, there is no pat on the back. There may not even be a second chance. The school system has done a poor job of preparing young people for the real world. It's no wonder that many would prefer to make a career out of being a full time student if the option was available.
No surprise! It just points to the shift in knowledge, research and ultimately in power that will happen over next two generations.
I migrated to US from Asia for a better future and my kids will migrate back to Asia in 25 years for their better future. How things change in two generations!
Hopefully not to Shanghai unless you want asma.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBookofLife
America has been powerful for too long.
Quote:
"Massachusetts students scored above the international average in reading, math and science literacy on the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), while U.S. scores as a whole remained at or below average in all three subjects."
...
In the United States:
Massachusetts scored higher than all but three other education systems (Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore) in reading. In science and math, Massachusetts tied for seventh and 10th place.
Connecticut beat the international average in reading and science and scored average in math.
Florida scored average in reading and below average in math and science.
Massachusetts has consistently scored well in national and international student assessments.
In being a standardized test under that real life situation would someone NOT have all the information in front of them? If you are an accountant and you don't have a general ledger on you I'd say that weakens your position. If you are a chemist and don't have your lab same thing. Like it or not but the idea of a test measuring outright performance is iffy at best here.
Most tests you see in terms of a higher ended one say SAT,ACT, GRE, GMAT have some type of essay. Having studied other languages and gone to other countries I can attest that learning English is not the simpliest thing. To westerners Chinese appears to have countless characters but them there are actually 104 letters in the English alphabet (print cursive, upper and lower case 26*4). Add in variances on spelling and grammar which are not exactly explained and you get the picture.
Malcom Gladwell explained some of the gap is more attestible to language and culture as the growing season dictated harvesting. Rice in Asia grows year round so there's no summer off. With this in mind those extra three months add up between the ages of 5 to 18 (3*13 is 39 or more than three years more education) Then the languages themselves involve less thinking in terms of their numbers Rice Paddies and Math Tests
The other funny thing mentioned is with video games if it wasn't for them we would have lost at least 10 years of computing technology. Games created demand for higher processors and computing speeds. No one has ever updated a computer to run a spreadsheet faster and yet Microsoft is now pretty much a video game company rather than a software company.
You mean all that texting a video gaming isn't making their brains more powerful?
You're kidding, right? Asians are massive consumers of gadgets and video games, perhaps more so than Americans. Additionally, studies have been done that suggest that people who play video games do stimulate and develop brain functionality.
Not that it matters, but many gamers I know are pretty successful and intelligent. Their job categories include sales, pharmaceuticals, medicine, and law.
Essentially, OP created a thread to denigrate young Americans and you got sucked into it hook, line, and sinker.
"Some" Asian kids (typically the cream of the crop) outperform most American kids. "Most" Asian kids are picking rice or looking for clean water somewhere while "some" American have "slightly challenged" higher education opportunities.
Many of these educational comparisons between US and Asian countries are comparing Asian one and two standard deviation kids to our mean kids. They also outnumber US kids about 3 to 1.
If Asian kids are so smart, compare:
US Mars Missions 1975 = Chinese Lunar Missions 2013 << American Lunar Missions 1969.
Where do the smart Asian kids want to go to college?
How many Asian satellites are there to compete with US satellites?
Asian technology outside of cell phones compared to US Medical and Business and High End Computing Technology?
How is health care in Asian Countries?
How comfortable would you be with a doctor from an Asian med school?
How about the mean standard of living?
Pollution considerations?
US Aerospace?
US nano technology, biotechnology, stem cell, and genetics reseacrch and technology?
Efficient, high tech, livestock and farming techniques?
The Japanese of the early 1940s had this superiority complex too. In fact, they didn't think it possible any bombs would ever be dropped on their homeland. American B-29 bombers proved them wrong.
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