Imagining American Leadership

Our presidential candidates could use a little more imagination. In fact, imagination is the very trait that our nation would do well to hoard in coming decades.

Would-be presidents have offered various education-related formulas for continued American competitiveness. This involves such good-faith efforts as increased support for K-12 education or improved access to community colleges.

But a more strategic vision would involve two priorities: First, we require a greater commitment to the American research enterprise than Congress has displayed of late. Second, we require a national renaissance of the arts and humanities, so that American imagination can continue to fuel American innovation.

Sufficient federal funding for basic research is vital: Cutting-edge science and technology discoveries can spur vast new industries and economic sectors that drive the global economy. The American-born Internet is today's exemplar; tomorrow's exemplar may be nano-science or quantum computing.

How many technologists must the United States produce toward this end? Depending on which study you believe, China is producing anywhere from 350,000 to 600,000 engineers annually, compared to anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 engineers in the United States (with roughly 30,000 of those being foreign-born).

But this is more than a numbers game. We must carefully ensure that we maintain a critical mass of engineers and scientists to stay competitive -- but beyond maintaining such a critical mass, the quest for leadership requires that we produce a citizenry with a far broader set of skills than technical ones.

Numerous experts have noted in recent decades a cultural divide separating the arts and sciences. Many also have noted an educational tilt toward logic-and-science-based "left-brain" functions that have benefited Americans economically -- while creative, emotional "right-brain" functions have suffered benign neglect.

Business writers such as Daniel Pink have argued that, as automation and low-cost Asian technological labor erode America's technological lead, many so-called "left brain" workers in this country face extinction -- unless they master "right brain" creativity that can spawn whole new sectors and industries. This is a credible assessment -- and good news, too. Even in technology-driven decades, Americans have innovated while others have mainly imitated.

Our creative edge can be honed, even as other edges grow blunt. While most of China's new engineers must focus on developing and servicing China's vast infrastructural needs, American infrastructure is already so well-developed that lower-level technicians can service it. This reduces the need for the United States to produce a matching number of engineers, and also allows the bulk of American-based engineers and scientists to dedicate themselves to technologies that can drive our economic future.

But a revaluing of the arts and humanities is essential to this process. Numerous lofty reasons exist to re-value the right-brain realms: to ignore the arts and humanities is to commit cultural suicide. The arts help us discern what it is to be fully human, and to live in the society of other humans. There are practical reasons too: The arts help us produce better engineers, better scientists, better physicians and better entrepreneurs.

Art is the ability to impose a meaningful pattern on experience and existence, the English mathematician Alfred North Whitehead noted. An artless technologist, one who attempts to innovate without this ability, will produce work that is sterile or even dangerous.

The University of Southern California moved in the past decade to give special recognition to "renaissance scholars," students who demonstrate a mastery of broad and integrated thinking. And the university has launched an arts and humanities initiative -- with film festivals, lectures, exhibitions and performances, accompanied by reflective components -- to reach students from every discipline, at the core of their being.

Students' appetites for such voluntary activities have surprised many. Cumulative student attendance is expected to exceed 20,000 for about 100 events this year. The students clamor for a chance to be inspired and challenged by the best arts, both classic and contemporary.

The arts have captured their imaginations long enough to expand and then unleash their imaginations toward practical purposes. A recent USC Student Innovator Showcase spotlighted a range of student innovations -- including efforts to take wiki-knowledge to the next level, address overlooked health concerns, and reorganize how entertainment is distributed and shared. These students are finding that their enhanced ability to create new opportunities and new solutions can serve as a precious anchor as their world lurches in unexpected directions.

This should remind politicians, pundits and ordinary citizens that an American college diploma should represent far more than a job credential confirming that a few years were spent in a classroom; it should represent a uniquely transforming experience of lasting benefit to both student and society. It just takes a little imagination.

C. L. Max Nikias, provost of the University of Southern California, is the founding director of USC's national multimedia research center and the former dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Comments

[RagingJerseyBoy]

Our educational system has never stressed creativity or original thinking; it is a relic of the early 20th century, with a one size fits all approach, designed to produce obedient factory workers and office clerks who can follow orders and know their place within the hierarchy.
Civics is part of the cirriculum, but it is not particularly stressed. Schools would rather fund their football teams than the arts and humanities. Many students are bored out of their skulls and can't wait to go home and play their X-Box. Considering the unthinking, unfeeling bureaucrats who run many of our schools and burned out teachers who don't feel they get much support from the administration or parents, that they are merely cogs within a mindless machine, who can blame these kids for hating school? Of course, there are good principals and teachers, but they are, alas, often stymied by the system and the limitations that have been imposed upon them.
Creativity and imagination is encouraged in small children; then they graduate from kindergarten. No more playtime; sit still for seven hours a day and fill out dittos. The fortunate few can make it through high school without the creativity they were born with getting sucked out of them by countless hours of sitting in a classroom. Then, of course, they can look forward to decades of sitting in a cubicle or becoming another sort of automaton.
Wouldn't life be so much more fulfilling if our society encouraged original thinking and creativity? It's refreshing to see that a prominent educator thinks so.
There needs to be a major paradigm shift. Left brained, linear thinking has its place, but it is emphasized by the educational system and the workplace at the expense of intuition and imagination. All areas of human knowledge are parts of a whole, but are compartmentalized and presented in piecemeal fashion, as though there were no relation.
By using imagination and intuition we can envision a vastly better world than the one we live in and resolve to create it, instead of merely plodding along.

[magen]

Whichever nation comes up with an inexpensive, clean, viable source of power will be the new millenium's superpower. At the same time, the problem of climate change will be dealt with, as well as the problem of America's dependance on foreign oil, and its national security interests. Economically this would create thousands of jobs and a whole new global business. Win, win, win situation. You don't need a great imagination to see this. Its simple.

Will it be China?

Why can't it be the US?

Because of republiCON policy and Exxon/Mobil's profits and lobbying power????????????????

[EnderCraig]

Cities spend money on landscaping and Parks because their beauty enriches our lives. Little things like planting trees or removing litter give us a sense of order and prosperity. Why can we not commit to education because it simply enriches our lives? It would be best for everyone if we could offer college level knowledge to every one before they graduated high school.

If we spent on our schools what we do on our military we could live in a world that needs fewer tanks and bombs. Perhaps we could be known as the country of health and knowledge instead of money and might.

Will we ever be spending too much money on education? Will we ever overburden our economy to the point of collapse by overspending on education? I would like a leader of courage to take a stand and demand an enormous emphasis on children's health and education.

[BBackSoon]

Maybe No Child Left Behind was just another way to break our backs? Like the war is breaking the military and opening the way for private armies.

At some level maybe only the rich get a reasonable education and they will vote 'Right'. All the rest get dummed down and only believe the flashy thing. This really is a long-term plan we are beginning to see here.

[JustAnotherJoe]

I'll second the idea that our presidential candidates need more imagination. I'm at a loss to understand Obama's plan to put the new Orion manned space vehicle on hold to pay for much needed educational programs. It's like the King of Spain deciding not to fund the construction of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Why raid the already strained NASA budget? Why not cut some of the weapons the Pentagon has plenty of like a missle defense system that doesn't work to protect us from a threat that doesn't exist? Why not withdraw troops from Iraq, sell off some of our military bases? Is it because there are no direct payoffs to exploration like there is for imperialism? Also interesting that this issue has not gotten more play on Huffpo.

[duggie]

Hoard imagination? We have a conceptual problem here. The U.S. tends to regard imagination as something that comes from handing a kid a box of crayons and rewarding him or her for drawing blue elephants and orange people. Imagination is not a commodity, nor can it be purchased. Imagination is JFK challenging NASA to land a man on the moon, and NASA not only believing it can be done, but DOING IT. And without iPODs! Imagine that.

We currently have no such imagination: it does not require imagination, or creativity, or sophistication to pay China to abuse its own citizens, so that billions of pink plastic squeeky toys for children cost $1.00. That economic strategy is no more than a contemporay version of the slave trade in Africa - more convenient, because we don't have to lay out cash to buy and transport 'workers' to the US who need food, clothing and housing. China takes care of all that for us.

It doesn't take imagination to bully oil producing countries. The trillion or so dollars that have been spent turning Iraq into a wasteland could have funded a national energy agency on the scale of NASA.

[LizM]

Unfortunately, none of what you talk about will be possible if there is not a responsible end to the CIVIL war in Iraq.

Which candidate do you trust to do that? And, note that it will not be enough to merely extricate US forces from the country - not by a long shot - and hope for the best.

You need a candidate for President who understands the Middle East and who has already earned the respect of Iraqi leaders - and world leaders - and who has developed a comprehensive political solution that has the support of Iraqi leaders and a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the US Senate.

'Help Make Hope And History Rhyme'...BIDEN '08 It's written in the stars

[wiseferret]

What a bunch of baloney. Imagination is not lacking in the USA. Decent pay is. People aren't getting paid enough to pay off their college debt and eat- and that is the science and engineering fields. Art and humanities? Are you nuts? They're out flipping burgers and greeting customers at 3 jobs- which was true 20 years ago when I decided to get a science degree that might pay me better.
Now, I haven't seen even a cost of living increase in my pay in 4 years. And the company (big corporation) cries they can't find American scientist. No, they just won't pay them. Because I got my start as a temp, every time they have openings at my level, these recruiters call and I laugh in their face when they tell me the pay and that there's no bennies.
There's NO Americans unwilling to do any job, there's plenty of scientists and engineers, they just have to be paid sufficiently to keep a roof over their head. And if the company prospers, it had better share that wealth, or these highly trained, intelligent and imaginative workers will leave.

[Beatitudes]

What has happened to the arts and letters in America in the last decade is frightening. Policy makers focus soley on economic gut issues when considering the urban lanscape in particular and rebuilding infrastructure. This is what may happen, as described in a novel, yes a novel, The Beatitudes by Lyn LeJeune, here New Orleans:


I sat up and looked over at St. Louis Cathedral. A beggar was standing to the side of the door, his hand thrust forward each time a penitent or tourist entered the church. I watched for a while; about half of the people gave him something, mostly the tourists.
"What"s up?" I asked Pinch.
"N"est pas juste wants to talk to us. Seems there"s been a few book burnings out in the suburbs. One librarian got beat up trying to stop the mob. Several teachers, booksellers and archivists from around the area have sought refuge at the House of Darkness."
"Any other signs?"
"You"ll see on our way. It"s not good, Scrimp. We"re heading into an age of stupidity, it seems."
"What"s new? Come on, Pete. I"m still hungry; bet you are too."
"Yep," said Pinch. "We"re starting all over again."
We stopped at the Central Grocery for the best muffalotta sandwich in the world. I flipped pieces to Pete as we made our way down the narrow streets and into the back area of the French Quarter. All along the way colorful warnings had been spray painted on walls, sidewalks, cars, wherever a space was available. Beware the dusty spectrum of memory; the words blared and assaulted the senses.
"What do you think that means?" asked Pinch.
"Maybe our pasts are not what they"re supposed to be?"

see: www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com for information about rebuilding the New Orleans Public Libraries.

[Swampacreage]

I'm OK(science)-You're OK(humanites)
I'M OK(science can be)-You're not OK(humanites can be)
I'm not OK(science can be )-You're OK(humanites can be)
I'm not OK(science)-You're not OK(humanites)
Right brain-left brain
Ying -Yang
Let us strike a balance and live in harmony !

[Erdgeist]

Right now I would go for critical thinking skills--and stop teaching to the test. I would also point out that great inventors are not, as a rule, made in universities. Benjamin Franklin didn't attend a university. Edison was a telegraph operator--Ford was a humble machinist. The list goes on. Concerning the geniuses from our distinguished universities wasn't it Lord Kelvin who said, "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible"?

[Herrington]

Mr. Nikias, I agree, in principle, with your conclusions, but find a short cut through your arguments.

Humanities and technologies do not exist in parallel universes, but in the same single universe. As a founding engineer in early Silicon Valley enterprises, Symantec, Visicorp and Apple, I can attest that a broader education opens more horizons of innovation than a pure technical focus in education.

The phenomenon of creation derives from need. Need is not taught but is recognized. Pure technical focus narrows the application of intellectual energy to the know problems of industry. In computing it is speed, storage and human factors in access to either speed or storage.

The problems that computers solve were not ever a matter of speed or storage or access, but were a problem of a use to which computers would serve a purpose. Without having men that put them to purpose, computers, like the internal combustion engine, would still be a curiosity rather than an industry.

So if China and India produce all the engineers in the world, the world will still lack a reason to employ them if no problems are presented to them to solve. Left to their owns inspirations, they will simply perfect a world of no use, a hobby.

The need for computing, for any innovation, is derived from a recognition of a problem that is external to the scope of the known. To know what is a problem is more the province of arts than of sciences. And, it is arguable whether science is always the best solution for what ails us.

[darker]

Yes. We need more Arts & Humanities to develop THINKING & IMAGINATION skills that are sorely lacking in our oh-so-practical education system that churns out students who cannot think or write.

Science has turned more into a business and publicity stunts than actual advancements that benefit people. Witness the numerous "studies" that clash with each other and confuse doctors, the public, and even other scientists.

Science is also a revolving door of science juries giving away billions in Tax Dollars for research that is often irrelevant and discovers nothing.

Science MYSTIQUE is an expensive American habit. Nobody is held accountable for concluding yet another bogus, aimless study without useful results.

Beneficial discoveries would CRASH scientists funded for endless cancer research, for example. They'd lose BIG BUCKS if they did lose cancer.
For them, it's not worth it. The ENDLESS CASH COW would be gone!

Imagination, thinking and problem-solving are developed by arts & humanities studies. If you don't appreciate it, you have not had the education you really need to survive!

[StephieL]

While I agree with Mr. Niklas that "that an American college diploma should represent far more than a job credential confirming that a few years were spent in a classroom; it should represent a uniquely transforming experience of lasting benefit to both student and society", the real problem lies with the massive disparity between a family's income (in particular, the income of those who inhabit the lower 80% of family income brackets) and the cost of a four-year college education.

Too many Americans are caught between providing for their own retirement and funding their children's college education, as student loans and grants begin to dry up. Many of them wind up taking upon themselves a lot of debt -- including racking up massive amounts of credit card debt and taking out home equity loans -- in order to fund their children's college education. This is especially problematic if more than one child is going to be sent off to college. Correcting the economic inequalities which run rampant in our country is one way to begin to correct the situation.

In the meantime, as Corporate America devalues the arts and humanities to the level of merchandise which can be bought and sold, and rabid religious fanatics seek to eliminate those arts and humanities which they deem to be "offensive", there is a deep -- if often unacknowledged -- hunger among America's youth for something which transcends the shallow frivolities of MySpace, Facebook, Halo 3 and YouTube; otherwise, the USC "renaissance scholars" program wouldn't be as successful as it has been.

Human creativity must be taken seriously enough in order to make sure that arts and humanities programs are available to all American children, beginning with pre-school and kindergarten programs. When a child is able to discover his/her own creativity, and put it to use with confidence, fearlessness and boldness, America would see a renaissance in science, technology and culture which would become the envy of other nations.

[SamThornton]

Yes, by all means, let's create more engineers so they can enjoy their 80-hour work weeks and lack of health care, lack of realistic retirement plans and the prospect of being outsourced or laid off to fund the next corporate takeover.

While we're at it, let's mine the naivety of our youth, extracting whatever dollars we can out of their gullibility.

American leadership is an oxymoron, a code phrase for squeezing the last drop of blood from a population made defenseless by sweetheart legislation written by corporations.