Speaking of neighbors...
Thank-you to everyone who came out on Sunday for our first ever CIJE STEM/STEAM & 21 Century Ed day! From the feedback from the 60+ participants, the day was a grand success. Your dedication to our kids is amazing and is exemplified by you giving up a Sunday for professional development. I am in awe of you!
Also, a special thanks to COJDS, EMEK School and the presenters! Without your participation this event could never have happened!
One of the attendees on Sunday was the president of CIJE, Mr. Jason Cury. He was talking to a group of participants about why our Jewish Day Schools - all U.S. schools for that matter - really need to invest in STEM/STEAM education. When I heard what he had to say about general education in the U.S., I became more than a little concerned.
Firstly, let me be clear. My blog readers know that I have been constantly writing on the need for improvements to our educational system. That is what this whole blog is about - cool ways to "up-your-educational-game" - but, as King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. All you have to do is read my blog post Story as Old as Time to see that science and math education has been a concern here in the U.S. since the 1950's!
As Jason explained to this group of participants, in the "old days" our competition for earning a livelihood was usually our neighbor.
No, not literally the "guy-next-door" but the person who is in the same socioeconomic bracket as us. You know, same education, earning potential, similar dreams and so on... In today's global economy, that neighbor could be someone living in India or China. OK, you may think... "so it's just a bigger pool of competition... no problem."
Yes, problem!
Let's crunch some simple numbers...
Students in school in
- India: 315 million
- China: 400 million
- United States: 75 million
This means that China ALONE has more people in school than the US has population! (US Population is 324 million)
Take the top 10% of students from India and China. That would be 31 million from India and 40 million from China. That almost equals the number of TOTAL students in America!!
And those 71 million top 10% kids are getting the same level of education (more-or-less) as our top 10%. Also, they will eventually become the middle class of their home countries with the same level of education as 7.5 million of our kids from here in the US!! That is a lot of competition from the "guy-next-door!"
Now, for the very scary part...
In India a middle class family earns $23K US. In China, they earn $32K US. In America, they earn $97K US. So, for an employer who can employ on a global basis it would make more sense to hire someone from India or China than to hire me!!
"But Yossie," you say, "that doesn't change people having to hire in America!"
OK, yes, but... my son wants to be a video game developer. It requires special skills and an aptitude for programming but it can be done from anywhere in the world. More and more, the jobs of the future are going to be global in nature and I worry if he be able to get a job when he graduates from school!
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| Check out Josan's art: www.pinterest.com/ferranprat/josan-gonzalez/ |
Before you start thinking about a dystopian future.. I believe that there is there a solution... but more on that in Part Two next week! (play cliff-hanger music here :-)
Yossie
Yossie Frankel
Tech Specialist - CIJE
Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com
Twitter @yossiefrankel
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