Serious stuff from White House about long term economic competitiveness
Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Craig Newmark
Hey, a country can only get real about being competitive if we have lots of engineers, scientists, and people teaching in those areas.
It's a long term deal, but Obama's launched a program to that end: the Educate to Innovate campaign.
Speaking to key leaders of the STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering & Math) community and local students, President Obama
announced a series of high-powered partnerships involving leading
companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering
societies dedicated to motivating and inspiring young people across
America to excel in science and math.
“Reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine
of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to
meeting the challenges of this century,” said President Obama. “That’s
why I am committed to making the improvement of STEM education over the
next decade a national priority.”
Related to this is National Lab Day, which is like the National Internet day in the nineties, which helped wired up a lot of schools. It made a difference, which helps to this day.
This is a totally necessary program that I think is a long time coming. When India has more honors students than we have students total, it's time to get creative and do something to ensure American innovation. This is good. This is real good.
I'd like to see Obama (and everybody else) start using CSTEM instead of STEM. 21st century STEM depends on computing, yet computing gets lost in the STEM.
Note: On the day Obama announces his "Educate to Innovate" campaign, the state of Arizona cut K-12 funding by $144 million.
In the US as everywhere, students flow toward areas that are respected and rewarded. Indian engineers expect well-paid jobs and social kudos. If the US rewarded its nerds and geeks better – and they got social prestige without having to found successful companies – more kids would take science and math seriously.
Also, in a globalized world, American students will face less competition in areas requiring excellent English language skills than they will in areas requiring strong math and science, which both Indian and Chinese students do well. (And India+China is 1/3 of the world population. The US is what, under 5%?)
I'm so glad that Obama is doing this. America is slipping when it comes to a number of areas including science and engineering. Definitely a step in the right direction!