---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tim Williamson <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: Where are these students who study science and engineeering
going to get a job
To: gerald ceasar <[email protected]>
Jerry,
I don't have a good answer. I do know that we must devote resources to
R&D, and to educating our children and grandchildren with the proper
foundations in science,math and engineering starting from Kindergarten
through the twelfth grade and beyond. If we do nothing in these areas, if
we just throw up our hands, then we will surely fall further behind
economically and educationally. As the rest of the world catches up to, and
exceeds in many cases, the US in educational excellence and in their
commitment to R&D, and as the playing field in the global marketplace of
ideas and new technologies and new sciences is becoming more and more flat,
then we must find those things that will differentiate us from the rest of
the planet. What will that be?
I am particularly concerned about the foundational instruction we are giving
our children. Some of the things we teach our children in science
instruction, and under the guise of science, is confusing and contradictory
and often not science at all. The children will either find a way to jump
over these societally imposed hurdles, or they will not pursue science. Our
nation is suffering as a result.
One such hurdle is our use of old english measurement systems. As you are
aware, trade, many industries that operate on the global front, industries
that are connected to the sciences, R&D facilities at the corporate and
government level, and many others, use the metric system for its universal
use around the globe and for its simplicity. Why are we not using the SI
Metric system? Dual measurement instruction is an attempt at
procrastination. We need to be teaching metric only K - 12.
Another hurdle our children must find a way to get through is what I call
the teaching of pseudo-sciences in our science classrooms. These things do
not even closely resemble real objective science and should be taught only
in a myth class or a religious studies class. These pseudo-sciences should
not be mentioned or discussed in a real science class. It is absolutely
crazy, and it is 'dumbing down' our students even further.
Tim
On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 1:03 PM, gerald ceasar <[email protected]> wrote:
> Tim
>
> Where are these students who study science and engineeering going to get a
> job when they are finished ... in China or India?
>
> Having been a scientist who has a Ph.D in physical chemistry from Columbia
> U. and been involved for over 40 years in large area electronics, solar
> cell and advanced battery technology R&D, the problem is that our large
> corporate research centers like Bell Labs, RCA, Xerox Corporate Research
> that gave the USA almost all of the seminal inventions of the 20th and 21st
> Century no longer exist or in Xerox's case a peanut of what it was in the
> 1970s and 80s.
>
> Chemical and Engineering News ( the trade journal for chemists) has not
> had an industrial job ad for Chemists for the last 5 years. Ditto
> for Physics today. Yes, jobs for teaching Chinese students chemistry exist
> and jobs for scientists at our national labs but few seminal inventions come
> from these natural philosophers. That's part of the crux of our problem and
> has come with downsizing of American R&D and manufacturing from over 20 % of
> our GDP to its current 10% level; manufacturing still makes up 28% of the
> Geramn GDP. GE's Jeff Immelt has over the past year called attention to
> this problem and the decline of maufacturing and R&D jobs. But his actions
> speak louder than words. Same thing can be said for the American
> pharmaceutical industry as it outsources its jobs to India.
>
> As China develops its R&D base to support its manufacturing, I am
> pessimistic about our future. More and more we begin to look like Britain
> that doesn't make anything anymore.
>
> We have to better understand the dilemma we are in economically with the
> Chinese as it manipulates its currency and pursues its mercantile, export
> and manufacturing policies. From what I know first hand of solar PV
> technology we won't have those clean energy jobs here as U.S manufacturers
> shut down operations here. It is not the cost of labor since solar cell
> manufacturing is highly automated.
>
> Jerry
>
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>
