America's Top Universities Scouring China's High Schools To Recruit Top Students

United Press International:

Harvard, Stanford and other top U.S. colleges say they're actively recruiting China's best high school students and offering them full scholarships.

Recruiting the best Chinese students will help elite U.S. colleges maintain international dominance, especially in math and science, said William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's admissions dean.

"There are no quotas, no limits on the number of Chinese students we might take," Fitzsimmons told more than 300 students during a recent visit to a high school in Beijing.

Read the whole story: United Press International

Comments

[PT6]

Solution: Set Goals OUTSIDE School Systems at NATIONAL Level and Drive Change Down to Teachers and Students using Change.ORG.
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Quote: "Recruiting the best Chinese students will help elite U.S. colleges maintain international dominance, especially in math and science."

How sad is this?

Having taught in engineering at Princeton and business at the University of San Francisco I recognize how poorly prepared the vast majority of American students are in Math and Science!

Right now:
We teach 1st grade math over and over through 3rd grade
We teach 2nd grade math in 4th to 6th grade
We teach 3rd grade math in 6th to 8th the grade
We teach 4th grade math in 9th to 10th grade
We teach 5th and maybe 6th grade math in the 11th to 12 th grade

We must start teaching:

1st grade math in 1st grade
2nd grade math in 2nd grade
........
12th grade math in 12th grade
Offer higher levels of math for the highly capable.

Same for Science!

This is the Largest single Failure of our School Systems.

Very few American Educated students can meet the challenge of high level college classes in Engineering, Quantitative Business, Science, and Computer Science and it shows in every graduating class with very few Americans if any graduating.

[Amalek]

I hear you on the math, but science? You are not suggesting that they teach that goofy stuff called evolution are you? I don't think you need to do science after first grade. The story of creation is only a couple of pages long.

That is the great thing about home schooling. You can teach your kids the things they really know to succeed in life. They sure aint gonna learn that at Harvard or some other Godless institution - looks like they are filling up with Commies anyhow.

[Finchy13]

Part 3 of (2) ended up 3

THERE IS LITTLE IF NO DESIRE TO EXCEL - AND THOSE WHO DO WANT TO LEARN ARE RIDICULED BY THOSE WHO DON'T!

ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME THAT WE TAKE BACK OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM AND INSTILL CREDIBILITY AND EXCELLENCE - JUST AS WE ARE TRYING TO TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY AND INSTILL CREDIBILITY AND EXCELLENCE -

OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE - AND RIGHT NOW, THERE'S NOT A LOT TO BE PROUD OF...

WHEN A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE'S ONLY REASON FOR GETTING OUT OF H.S. IS TO GO TO COLLEGE - AND STAY DRUNK & PARTY FOR FOUR YEARS - AS telvision and motion pictures show as so cool.........ATTENDING CLASSES AND GETTING AN EDUCATION IS AN IMPOSITION!!

THEY ARE THROWING AWAY THEIR FUTURES - AND THEY DON;T GIVE A DAMN.

THINGS HAVE GOT TO CHANGE - WE HAVE TO INSTILL A HUNGER IN OUR CHILDREN FOR KNOWLEDGE - AND KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION ARE NOT THE SAME THING - BUT KNOWLEDGE CAN BE GAINED BY EDUCATION - WHETHER IN A FORMAL SETTING OR THROUGH SELF-EDUCATION.......

[Finchy13]

Part 2 of 2


Part 2 of 2

Integrated throughout all 12 years and particularly the first 6 years - the Cultural Art must be started - teach children to LISTEN to music, to sounds, to nature - to SEE paintings, photographs, sculpture, rivers and mountains……LEARNING TO LISTEN WITH YOUR EARS AND SEE WITH YOUR EYES IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT AS LEARNING TO READ, WRITE, AND SPEAK FLUENTLY!!!!!!!!

NO -Physical Education classes - every morning EVERY STUDENT be REQUIRED TO COMPLETE ONE HOUR of GOOD - STRENOUS P.T. - just like in military service - NO football, no basketball, no baseball, no cheerleading, - BUT INCLUDE SOLID TRACK AND FIELD EXERCISES….Take all the spectator sports out of the schools except Track and Field………..

GET EDUCATION BACK IN THE CLASSROOMS WHERE IT BELONGS - AT THE END OF EACH YEAR - EVERY STUDENT SHOULD HAVE TO PASS AN EXAMINATION (WRITTEN & VERBAL - NOT ANNOUNCED UP FRONT) TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT YEAR - NO ONE PASSES WITHOUT A - B AVERAGE FOR ALL CLASSES.....

IF THEY DON'T PASS THE YEARLY EXAMS , THEY STAY EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE, UNTIL THEY LEARN THAT IT IS BEST TO LEARN....THIS PASSING OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE NOT LEARNED JUST TO GET RID OF THEM - MUST STOP....

Schools have become institutions that do not require DEDICATION, ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY, RESPECTABILITY, - OF THEIR STUDENTS - IN T'URN TEACHERS DON'T RESPECT THEIR STUDENTS - MOST CASES CAN'T BLAME THEM....

THERE IS LITTLE IF NO DESIRE TO EXCEL

[Sarahjan]

This is ref. to two Canadian researchers who won the Kyoto prize, not the Nobel Prize



http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/06/20/kyoto-prize.html

[Sarahjan]

Amalek

things can be changed by changing how the Americans think about their priority such as education. Just look at some of the threads currently running at this blog and make the necessary connections.
we have looting of the public wealth by banks is linked the army which is chasing phantom terrorists and education that is out of reach for millions of Americans! Make these links and figure out how to change things for the better.I am listening the CBC radio and it reports two Canadians won Nobel Prizes: in biology and other in politcs! Please get rid of neoliberalism and focus your attention on the collective wellbeing of the American people. The US needs to stop its culture of militarism. The US can lead the world through peaceful means.

[MourningDood]

You repeatedly refuse to acknowledge that the US spends more per capita on education than any country in the world. Before you start you next rant against military spending, explain why the current record level of spending per capita in the world is insufficient.

[Sarahjan]

MdinOK


The republican have destroyed the US education system.
One thing I noticed about Chinese students I work with is their strong nationalism. Most of these students will return to China. What we need to keep in mind is that in the US education is run as a business rather as an essential public good.

[Amalek]

Of course these students will return to China after they get their education. That is where the jobs will be. China is already the place for young people of all nationalities to build their careers. After this depression in the US the Chinese are going to be looking down on the US.

We done got beat at our own game.

[MDinOK]

We just don't have enough teaches qualified to teach science. I also think we place a lot of emphasis on sports. If we dedicated as much time and money to science and math as we do sports, we would be in better shape to compete globally. During my daughter's last year in middle school, her teacher was athletics coordinator and THEN science teacher. It is my opinion that if we want our children to succeed in high school, science must be taught and inspired at an early age by qualified teachers. I live in Oklahoma and the science program in elementary and middle school is awful.

I think these colleges and universities should be penalized when they recruit foreign students!!! Then just maybe they would be willing to help reform our public schools and recruit more American students.

[Sarahjan]

Rictracee

In the US the poor value education but they lack the money to access higher education. That is why many enlist in the army in the hope of gaining access to higher education.
The rich do not need to work harder. in the pasrt the system sustained itself through massive influx of highly skilled foreign trained workforce but that scheme is about the collapse thanks to globalization.

[Rapid Ray]

I just watched my 18 year old son who graduated second in his high school, fight like hell to finance his college education and yesterday he called needing information to get ahead of the same troubles for next year. Despite the fact that we haven't been able to do much more than co-sign a loan, he's gone far, learned much and got his foot in the door to a better future.

Now I sit here and see colleges and universities actively recruiting kids from other countries and offering them an all expenses paid education.

To say this idea is F'd up is an understatement.

The bottom line is that there are bright kids IN THIS COUNTRY who, given a fair shake, can be well educated and use that for the benefit of THIS COUNTRY when they graduate.

[Sarahjan]

Ridgemore

I am amazed that this man is active at Obama admin!
Obama is not as visionary as he appears to be!

[Sarahjan]

Jeanrenoir

The crisis of the education system in the US is more complex than lazy students. It is first and foremost structural, poor funding schemes, lack of shared wealth but majority who are poor and the 10% at the top of the food chain. Poor kids in the US lack access to quality education, healthycare, good food, decent housing. This problem is also related to how teachers are trained and whether or not they are payed well. It is about recruiting bright but poor students into US war machine rather teaching them science and math. I live in Canada and Canadian kids score higher in math, science and engineering than those in the US but because the US thinks of Canada as a the communist north that the US media does not often report on the market difference between Canada and the US in terms of not just education but difference in overall quality of life. Your reference to gene pool is not credible! Good genes and bad genes are everywhere; the difference between engineering culture between Germany and the US is based on cultural values[education is free in Germany not in the US. The same is true of India and China . It is about the US reconsiders its obsession with private wealth making and decide whether it will sink or swim with the rest of the developed nations.

[walleymr]

This isn't news to anyone that's actually been to a University in this country.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Who pays the tuition the Chinese government, they know were there future lies, there children, we just can't figure that one out, the banks need to fleece them as early as possible. When I was in college a student loan was subsidized at 3%, with a prime rate a hell of lot higher than it is now. I forgot conservatives think education is socialism. Chris Matthews put it pretty well, Karl Rove should attend every college graduation because that's a generation the new conservative movement loses, which I find curious because the militant conservative movement that is currently loosing favor are products of the College Republicans organized during the Reagan era.

[nellie]

This is totally repulsive.

I have nothing against accepting qualified Chinese kids who apply here, no matter how many want to come. But to spend the energy on recruiting students from abroad rather than improving the secondary education that students get in the U.S. is just wrong. For so long, these high-stakes universities have held themselves up as prizes for kids who do well in high school, but they've never assumed any responsibility for helping our high schools do a better job of preparing students for a rigorous college.

The priorities are all wrong.

[Amalek]

Put yourself in Harvard's shoes. You got lots of money, and the most important thing to you is to continue to have the smartest people in the world go to your university. China has 1.3 billion people, who value education more than American's do, so naturally there are more smart people there than in the US. Harvard would, and should recruit in Afghanistan if there is a wonderchild there.

This is nothing to get too excited about. However, if the US does not figure out how to get rid of the rampant anti-intellectualism of the republican party we are going to get a real butt kicking from the Chinese.

[netzwerg]

Iam working abroad at aachen university in germany, which is one of the top adresses here in europe when it comes to engineering science.
It is no secret, that american students are about 2-3 years behind their european and asian counterparts when leaving high school.
That is pretty alarming, but I doubt our government is going to change anything about it, because theire following different goals.