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Hi Selma,
Thanks for your kind response. However you skirted the questions by denying the
problem. (Good try.:=)) This is even after I presented the quotes of an expert
in the field, and you did the same with the UNICEF study. Goans on Goanet seem
to demand "hard data" and "references". Yet when they get it and it is not
what they like, they just "ignore it" or call it "facile" or dismiss it as
"weak". Do you not love that?
You then switch the arguments form undergrad education (your original post) to
postgrad education and success (current post), even skipping graduate
education. Good leap. Amchem tempar, we called it "hop ... skip ... and ...
a jump."
Here are my thoughts on your recent post. Yes America is great! Mario has done
a good job on your psyche.:=)). On your recent visit to Goa, looks like you
definitely missed home (America). Its success that you have outlined is
provided by 1% of its citizens - many of whom are immigrants and thus not
products of American undergraduate education.
The long list of the "necessary educational support programs" that you
initially outlined in your post are very expensive. And in practice the large
smorgasbord / buffet of activities serves to distract students and parents. So
instead of focusing on instruction, we have moved to this nebulous "all round"
development; that its proponents (especially philosophers and liberal artists)
try to promote. And to keep up with the simile, the students becomes fat
instead of being lean and healthy.
How about high school education concentrating on the basic "R"s? .... And ....
How about eliminating the "me-smart" attitude that American and Goan societies
promote?
Twice a year, I get invited to our public school to talk to high school
students about careers in the medical field. My human eye picks up three
groups of students, that very interestingly cluster together. They are Whites,
Blacks, and Orientals (US born). We have a big Vietnamese, Cambodian, Burmese
immigrant population. As a general rule the only students really excited about
what I talk (and their own careers) are the Orientals. As recent immigrants
they are small-made and compared to the other groups could be termed
malnourished and dress conservatively. And they know, they do not have a
"leg-up". The "me-smart" students have their first question, "How much does
this job pay?"
Kind Regards, GL
------------ Carvalho wrote:
You've raised a valid point. Let me start by stating another report that made
headlines recently. According to an UNICEF report, the US ranked last in child
well-being when compared with 22 other industrialised countries. Now, the
point I'm trying to make is that such comparisons are facile. They are based on
subjective parameters and very often fail to take into account the diversity of
the American population and that infact the US is almost an entire continent
which can not rightfully be compared with tiny nations in Western Europe.
So let's use some everyday commonsense parameters to judge the validity of the
US education system. Does it manage to produce a skill set to meet its
workplace demands? Has it been in the forefront of technology and innovation
in the 21st century? Does it produce more than its fair share of scientists,
movie producers, composers, writers, influential thinkers and entrepreneurs?
Does it take home the most gold at the Olympics? Does it attract thousands of
foreign students every year who bet their careers on a US education? Would you
be happy educating your own children in the US?
The answer to all those questions is a resounding YES. I for one am not
shedding any premature tears for the demise of the US American education
system. It's as robust as ever.
--- Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> How come the American education system is so abysmal
> in spite of the highest per capita student
> expenditure?
