The United States, once again has been pushed from the top at being number one in something. In the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), we as Americans have become followers instead of leaders. The Chinese have, for many years, made education their number one priority and continued to focus on the STEM fields, instead of pushing them into the background. When the Chinese were allowed to take part in comparative testing, they outscored every other nation in terms of reading, science, and math proficiency, even Singapore which is known as the “world’s math superstar” All around the world, future jobs will require a greater knowledge of math and science and with five percent of U.S college students graduating with these type of degrees, we seem to be setting ourselves up for failure. Therefore, the National Science Foundation (NFS) has recently announced that they will be taking new steps to ensure they everyone will know the importance of these fields as well as how to do well in them.
This article is addressing a lot of issues. The fact that our country is lagging behind yet again in an important arena and the fact that if something is not done immediately to fix it, we will not only suffer but future generations to come. This is a social issue because it is affecting a vast majority of people and although it is detrimental to our economy, something can be done to fix it. With the different programs that they have set in place to help start this change, I feel that a lot of success can come from it. We need to take some of the techniques that the Chinese use and try to find a way to make it even better. We are a great nation and have a billion minds capable of excelling; we just have to begin somewhere. Overall, Americans must understand the urgency of this situation. The job market is hurting right now. Therefore, if you want to have a stable job you have to do something that you know will make you stand out amongst the rest. With jobs starting to require more with math and science students need to choose between long days and hard nights of studying for a better future, or a future with jobs and no stable career. If I was them I would choose the career!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-ann-rankin/stem-math-science-education_b_1095412.html
9 comments:
I agree that we are missing out on opportunities to improve ourselves as a country and as individual people by not leading in STEM advancements. Maybe we are trying to sneak up from behind and steal credit from another country without doing the work to earn it?
Math and science have been the two subjects that US students fall behind, compared to other countries. I think everyone is accountable for achieving greater knowledge. I agree that teachers should learn from other successful countries and try to find new teaching methods. If our teaching system were to set the bar high at a young age, the pressure to succeed and score high would probably increase.
This is interesting since I will be teaching secondary math soon. Hopefully, I can be a part of a movement to get us to speed. The problem is no one person can do it alone. The US needs to come to speed about what is important, instead of focusing on useless issues all the time. Their needs to be some action, so who will take it?
Math and science have been the two subjects that US students fall behind, compared to other countries. I think everyone is accountable for achieving greater knowledge. I agree that teachers should learn from other successful countries and try to find new teaching methods. If our teaching system were to set the bar high at a young age, the pressure to succeed and score high would probably increase.
Math and science are the gateways to many new technological discoveries as well as medical ones. I love that we put so much emphasis on other subjects as well, but perhaps we need to be hiring more and better teachers to make these two sort of "boring" topics fun and interactive, and maybe our children will lean more towards the subjects to promote not only their future, but ours as a nation as well.
Math and Science ratings have always been low for our country in comparison to Asian countries, and other countries around the world. I believe that instead of blaming the students and their environments, we as a community should look at other countries as inspiration and guidance to raising the bar and testing rates.
Math and Science has always been the two subjects that students in the United States struggle with. I feel that one of the reasons that these two subjects are not being understood by students is because of certain teachers that are teaching the subjects. These two subjects are not easy subjects and it takes a very educated and patient teacher to thoroughly teach students these two subjects. Also, these are two subjects that require students to build upon throughout their years of college.
I think it's interesting that the US is so far behind on these subjects. From my viewpoint, I think that US Education already heavily pushes those two subjects, I mean look at the subjects that usually receive the most funding. I think the problem lies with the fact that the American political system continues to push education to the back burner. It is also important to know that when looking at testing scores amongst other countries, to keep in mind that they are only testing their best and brightest and we are testing ALL of our students.
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