At NBC's Education Nation Summit yesterday, Melinda sat down with our good friend Warren Buffett and his daughter, Susie Buffett, to talk about education.
Melinda and I believe deeply that education should be everyone's priority, and it should be at the top of our nation's domestic policy agenda. There's a lot of uncertainty today about our nation's economy, but there is no uncertainty that a high-quality education is key to economic prosperity for all of our people -- and for us as a nation.
The numbers don't lie. Unemployment rates among Americans who never went to college are about double that of those who have a postsecondary education. And the need for highly-skilled workers is growing. By 2018, an estimated 63 percent of all new U.S. jobs will require workers with an education beyond high school.
For our young people to get those jobs, they first need to graduate from high school ready to start a postsecondary education. Right now, only one-third of all high school graduates are prepared to succeed in college-level work. To raise that number, every student must have a great teacher in every subject, every year.
And once today's students start their postsecondary studies, they deserve a system that supports them all the way to the end -- so they can finish what they started in a timely way -- and at an affordable price.
Melinda and I are working hard with our partners on these issues. We welcome the help of others. We want this country to be a more equitable, more prosperous place for everyone. And we feel passionately that the road to a better future passes through American schools.
Bill Gates is the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He regularly posts his thoughts about the Foundation's work and other projects on his personal web site, The Gates Notes.
Follow Bill Gates on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BillGates
If Mr. Gates had been subjected to the "data-driven" educational environment prevalent in today's schools when he was growing up, his academic career would probably have been shorter than it was.
My point is is that, as a great American entrepreneur, and now philanthropist, Mr. Gates can help focus his Foundation behind what has truly made America innovative and great. And that means looking at education in ways that are beyond the number counters.
Steve Zimmerman
www.ownf.org
I wonder just how many of America's problems can be directly attributed to the fact that we REFUSE to admit that some people just aren't as smart as others?
We never will, either. You know why? Because liberals don't want to admit that not everybody is born with equal skills and equal potential. Conservatives never will either, because admitting differences in intelligence will mean that all those rich guys DIDN'T just get rich due to hard work, and that everybody else who's willing to work hard can do the same thing. They'll never admit that a lot of it is just the blind luck of which genes you were born with.
Companies that have big cash, to a large extend due to government largesse and tax advantages, should invest and train workers.
Obama is screamed at by the oligarchic press not to overspend and expected to improve the job situation.
Who is kidding whom?
I mentor ~30 people in my group, consisting of postdocs, grad students, undergrads, and a few high school students (sophomores to seniors). Several are below 18 in my group (including one person who started UW undergrad at age 14). These under 18 people, studying in WA public schools, are INCREDIBLY SMART. They can hold their own against my most senior postdocs.
Admittedly that's a biased sample since people who come to me are really somewhat of an overachiever. But my children so far have shunned any appreciation for science but I can see that the education they're getting (in Mukilteo WA) is fantastic. I am envious of those who go through public school here. America as a country is symbolic of its public schools. It is more than just learning stuff from textbooks. It's about nurturing creativity.
I can overlook that. I cannot overlook the blanket statement "American public education is the best in the world". Unless you have traveled the whole world, such a statement cannot be accurate. Still, I applaud your efforts and continued presence in academia. Hopefully you will help make a difference.
I myself got my Primary and Secondary education in a "3rd world" nation. However, my grades were low and by national standards I did not even graduate. Then I came to the US for college. It was the only country where schools would accept my low grades. Surprisingly, I was way ahead of my fellow classmates--with my failed 3rd world education! Long story short. In the US I was an A student graduating Summa Cum Laude. After Grad school I taught at 2 Universities before finally moving to another vocation.
From my experience in academia, as a student and as a professor, I have learned that with no national education standard, the result is inconsistency in education, and degrees awarded that should not be. Though there are some excellent institutions and students prepared for them, What Mr. Gates states is true. The primary and secondary education is generally sub-par, and at the university level the quality is department by department. Couple this with the anti-science, anti-intellectualism hailed in the current political discourse, and it will only get worse.
Or you may be smarter than you think you are. As I write, if you were to compare the very best, you'll find a different story I think. But America always used immigrants to move forward. I think there is far less homogeneity in certain places in the world which makes some kinds of education easier than others. Canada and Australia are also immigration based economies and do a good job, so I can see looking up north as being far more instructive.
You have the rise of The Corporate State in America in the past 4 decades where vast numbers of jobs and factories have been outsourced to Mexico, Asia, Communist China and now India.
And this man is talking about the need for higher education when the Universities and Colleges in the U.S. have long been privatized and charge ever increasing tuition fees.
Yet, there are Nation States around the Globe that offer FREE education at those two levels.
In the U.S., the WEALTHY elites do not pay Federal Taxes. If they did, the Governments could run FREE education as a result.
A case in point.
There is a Senate record in the Sixties where Nelson Rockefeller had to submit a Federal Tax Return. One of the richest people in the U.S. was found to only pay $650.oo in Federal Income Tax in one year.
The Foundation Laws permitted this wealthy man to donate 1/2 of his annual income into a Foundation Fund which zeroed out the Tax Owing on the remaining 1/2 annual income.
Would you care to post your Federal Tax return, Mr. Gates!
And I still have not gotten over how the Gates Foundation joined up with a Rockefeller Foundation to build that Seed Bank in Iceland. I wonder what that was all about!
First, to really profit from a college education, you have to have the drive, the vision, and the self-discipline to study stuff that will actually get you jobs. Otherwise you'll wind up as part of the best-educated bar and wait staff in the country (Something that's endemic to the Gates Foundation's hometown of Seattle).
Second, the reason high-school graduates have trouble finding work is that they're poorly educated for the kind of blue-collar work that NEEDS doing, and can't just migrate to some other country. I'm talking about the need for skilled plumbers, electricians, power and communications lines-keepers, carpenters, trades-people in general, who serve our everyday needs and make a darn good living doing so.
There once was a time when "shop" was a time-honored part of a teenager's education. I can fondly remember taking Electrical Shop, starting out learning to wire simple battery-powered circuits, then "graduating" to real household-type wiring using 110V current. Or learning to safely use power tools in Wood Shop. Or learning to create detailed drawings in Drafting. (Used that skill to find work during a period of hard times). What are we teaching now? Touchy-feely "community learning" and "save the earth" science-cum-indoctrination? With that kind of "preparation", no wonder it's hard to find a job.
Superintelligent kids have an easier time than ever now. Kids that aren't so bright have nothing to look forward to. And there's a lot more of them, and there's nothing they can do about it.
Steve Jobs of Apple Computer dropped out of college to start his business out of a garage. He later got an honorary degree.
Matt Damon dropped out of Harvard, he is now a successful - Movie star.
Just the facts.
Perhaps your next operation you should request that your surgeon be a med school dropout. Also the engineers building the next bridge/plane/building/electronic device you use. "Calculus, who needs calculus, my gut tells me it's safe. Like Matt Damon, I'm a successful dropout."
Our schools are often boring and irrelevant. Teachers are far too concerned about controlling the learners, deciding what they should read and study, teaching them "critical thinking" , and pushing social agendas, rather than encouraging students to find ways to enjoy exploring and learning via reading.
Schools are inefficient and costly, and universities even more so. Efficiencies need to be introduced that take advantage of modern technology and harness the learning power of motivated learners who can read. Developing such learners should be the first task of our schools. Reducing the cost of our inefficient politicized teaching industry should be the second.
Basic skills in math, science, reading comprehension, and critical thinking are all needed and used in skilled trades. Computers cannot to this day wire your house or nurse your ill family members. We need skilled, proud, and accomplished people in these fields. The schools have failed to produce them. Vocational education is scarcely talked about.
College is not for everyone, nor should it be. But it should be available and attainable to those who want it, and whose temperaments need it.
america is lost ... nobody really cares...