Education - responses

Uncle Mike,

I almost can't read all of the information that you so eloquently share. But, on education... I was interested. After all, it is my field for 30 + years. I did read that latest Blog. I agree that our students need a "kick in the pants" and that the sports, music, and entertainment idols have taken over many of our youth. To whom do most look up? See above... But my thought is this: Why can't we all work together...all countries. I know competition inspires, but cooperation could help the world. I don't know if we will ever get there, but in my small corner of the world (two elementary schools) I will continue to push for cooperation vs. competition as the way to go. If all the Chinese and American scientists could cooperate, the world would be a better place. My view is somewhat simplistic, but it is too bad that it can't work.

Carole

Dear Carole:

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. Please read my following words not as condemnation, but admiration for those brave souls like yourself who hope and work for a better world where we all work together in peace and harmony. That would indeed be a wonderful world. Among idealists and dreamers– those positive, hopeful souls that want a truly benevolent world– indeed all who deal in hopes and promises for everyone– there are those dedicated souls who “know” there is always the possibility that by some miraculous action we can all work together for the common good. “The Impossible Dream” from ‘The Man from LaMancha” is one heart rending musical plea for the Don Quixotes of our world. It is a powerful emotional appeal which touches many of us, mostly because it seems so hopeless. Believe me, I have felt its grip.

Unfortunately, the real world is just not such a place. There are truly many evil and malevolent people who, in varying degrees, would and do gladly use such appeals to further their own cause or belief system to their own or their groups imagined benefit and to the detriment of others. Their appeals seem just as worthy and emotionally compelling as any other, often more so as they are not bound by morals or truth. The reality of the existence of these kinds of people, even if they were in a tiny minority of say one in a thousand, would and does of itself, counter or destroy virtually any unprotected positive effort. Sadly, they are not a tiny minority. Those self serving actions seem to come from a dominant human nature in virtually any culture. The honor system works only if used on a very small scale, in a controlled arena or with a particular group with at most very few outsiders. That the poor boxes in churches have so often been robbed is an old and classic illustration. They only work where they are constantly watched.

Even the best motivated professionals, including scientists, compete with each other individually and in groups, sometimes viciously, but sometimes also in a friendly rivalry. The men who worked on the human genome project are a pretty good example of both. There certainly was friendly rivalry but there was also some extremely vicious and acrimonious responses to ideas espoused by some and despised by others. One man working with his small private group and in defiance of government instruction, developed a very successful, quick and accurate method of discovering and recording genetic code. His procedure cut the time (and the cost) for project to less than half of that projected. That complete story is a perfect example of intelligent and well meaning scientists who should have been cooperating, but instead were sometimes almost at each other’s throats like schoolboys fighting in a playground disagreement during a game. Fortunately, one of the major combatants backed down to quell the conflict. Sadly it became his reputation that was sullied in that tight little scientific community even though the concept he developed was subsequently adopted by everyone in every group involved. He was the one who was right, yet he was the one who suffered merely because he went against the consensus and associated peer pressure to develop his own system.

Conflicts of this type are inevitable between individuals, groups, families, tribes, cultures, nations, clans, races– any identifying characteristic, cause, idea, concept, action or other difference becomes the dividing factor. In their best state, they become friendly rivalries, often very motivating, quite fruitful and rewarding to all sides. In their worst state, they ultimately develop into warfare on many scales and with the resulting death and destruction. The “space race” was one rivalry between nations that was about as “friendly” as one could imagine between two powerful nations possessing the capability of blowing each other to smithereens. Perhaps MAD did work? With luck, this is the kind of rivalry and competition we will experience with the Chinese, Indians and others, particularly in the new e-world where anything that can be digitized is instantly transported to the entire globe.

Make no mistake, education, specifically the education of the very young, will be a major deciding factor in the results of this competition. Not only in who wins, but in the direction the entire lot of humanity takes– how the winner shares that success with the rest of the world– how the results affect our lives and the environment– the attitude of those involved in the competition– plus a thousand other factors of great significance to individuals and groups. We really need a strong, positive force educating those leaders of tomorrow while they are young and malleable.

Whether we like it or not, the Chinese, as a nation, have chosen deliberately to out educate, out produce, out innovate, out create, out wealth and out wit us and delegate our nation to second place on the world scene. Whether this develops into friendly rivalry or bitter warfare is up to the leadership of those nations as guided by circumstance or the will of the people. The sudden emergence of the e-world carries with it wonderful possibilities that the will of the people will become an increasing force for the positive. It is intriguing that Chinese leadership has chosen to abandon much socialist doctrine and emphasize profits, individual enterprise and almost laissez-faire capitalism as their tool to do the job. There are numerous others in the wings, working and driving, some with varying degrees of malevolence toward us. Read Tom Friedman’s book, “The Earth is Flat 2.0" for a much more in-depth explanation of that to which I’m referring.

Quite the opposite of the emerging nations, the Islamic world is and has, for at least fourteen centuries, chosen the route of hatred and warfare as virtually their only means of competing. That they've been at it consistently for fourteen hundred violent years sumarily disputes those who now blame us for their recent acts of violence. With madrassas and imams teaching the very young nothing but hatred for all who disagree with their rigid way of life, Islam chooses murder, mayhem and warfare as their tools for competing. This is true not only for their efforts against all “outsiders,” but even against other sects within Islam itself. They are as much an enemy of the Chinese, Indians and others as they are of the West and specifically, the US. They are a powerful menace to humanity with which we will have to deal one way or another. Either we defend ourselves, join their regressive religion or die by their hands. They, not we, made that choice centuries ago. Short of all out war, the only way to deal with them is to choke off their money supply by finding an alternative to petroleum as our major energy source. That is the major thrust of my book and I believe it can be done within ten years or even less. Incidently, I truly believe their leaders, even American Islamic leaders, when they say they want the entire world governed by Islamic Sharia law. I also believe their current rapid infiltration of Europe will soon result in at least one European nation under Islamic law, probably France.

The education essay was but a small part of my book, “SOLUTIONS!” which I have been developing and researching for the last five years and which I hope to have published this year.

For your information, the main effort of the book is addressing the energy/oil crisis, but that actually affects most of the other problems covered in the book. Here’s my latest, description of this positive book:

A ten year plan to put America back on top by regaining the lead in energy, education, science, engineering, economics, the environment and much, much more.

I’ll bet you didn’t even know we lost it, did you?

Well, if we haven’t already lost it, we are about to unless we reverse course quickly.

The purpose of the book - -

- - it is to propose timely, affordable and practical solutions to several of the serious problems facing our nation including:

1. Our growing consumption and dwindling supply of increasingly expensive petroleum based fuels.

2. Our continuing addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and its possible link to global warming.

3. Our increasingly dangerous transfer of huge amounts of money from the US (and many other free-world countries) to totalitarian regimes that threaten, indeed promise, our destruction while helping tyrants stay in power.

4. The vagaries and complexities of an inconceivable complex web of federal and state income tax laws.

5. The national security crisis including the growing illegal alien invasion of our nation.

6. A huge, money making drug problem that fosters murder and other law breaking by competing drug organizations as well as unscrupulous individuals.

7. An education system that is rapidly destroying our leadership position in the
world, primarily in science and engineering innovation, but in other areas too.

8. An information media that values celebrity over substance, sensation over
excellence, sex over morality, bias over objectivity, and dollars over honesty.

9. A Social Security system on the verge of bankruptcy which no one seems willing to address creatively.

And there are others. . . .