High standards bring out the best in all of us, challenging us to dig deep within ourselves to accomplish things we originally thought impossible.
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, who grew up as the son of a meat cutter on the rough side of Brooklyn, N.Y., credits his education in Jesuit-run schools for instilling in him the high standards of excellence that he would later use to mold his players into champions.
Toni Morrison, who in 1993 became the first African American and the eighth woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, says she probably never would have become a writer had not her mother exposed her to the best literature as a child.
Although important throughout life, high standards are especially crucial in the formative years to help shape our work ethic, morals and sense of responsibility, academic performance, confidence and persistence against adversity -- all ingredients for success in life.
But, how successful are we today in setting high, obtainable standards of excellence for our children, especially in academics, to prepare them to survive and thrive in the highly technological and competitive world they will inherit?
Perhaps this personal account by President Obama (taken from a speech he made at the U.S. Department of Education two years ago) may provide insight. Said the President:
I'll never forget a school I visited one day when I was a community organizer in Chicago. As I walked around the school with the principal, I remember saying to her how wonderful it was to see all these kids so full of energy and hope ... And when I asked them what they were going to be when they grew up, they said, we're going to be doctors and lawyers, and they all had these big dreams for the future. And I remember the principal saying that soon all that would change; that in a year or two, something would shut off inside as they began to realize their hopes wouldn't come to pass -- not because they weren't smart enough, not because they weren't talented enough, but because they didn't see a pathway to success.
And that's true of too many children in this country... Maybe they aren't being challenged at school. Maybe their parents aren't pushing them the way they need to. Maybe nobody is setting high expectations for them.
Research abounds with evidence that high standards and expectations exert powerful influences upon students. For example, classic studies in psychology report that merely stating an expectation clearly and repeating it periodically results in enhanced performance. Other research in education reveals higher expectations result in higher performance, and persons with high expectations perform at a higher level than those with low expectations even though their measured abilities are equal, and despite socio-economic differences between learners.
Math, science and engineering -- the engine of technological innovation in the 21century -- especially stand to gain from high academic standards. America, a country that has always led in innovation, is now being outpaced in math and science education by other nations. This achievement gap not only jeopardizes our global competitive edge in technology but also, according to a White House estimate, stands in coming years to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars in wages that will not be earned, jobs that will not be done, and purchases that will not be made.
Bluntly stated, we need to inspire more young people to pursue the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields and to prepare children for the high standards these professions demand. This means encouraging them in their pre-college years to take (and do well in) such challenging courses as geometry, algebra, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, environmental science. Subjects that most kids like to avoid.
It's been my experience as creator and organizer of the USA Science & Engineering Festival (www.usasciencefestival.com ) -- the nation's first annual event to attract and inspire the next generation of innovators -- that kids' interest and motivation in math and science skyrockets when such learning includes exciting interaction with scientists, engineers and biotech entrepreneurs, and the chance to participate in meaningful hands-on presentations in these fields in and outside the classroom. These are the types of experiences the Festival provides, which in turn give students the opportunity to see how science, engineering and math are applied to real-life situations, and to witness up-close what these careers offer.
During the two-week Festival (which last year received accolades and acknowledgment from the U.S. Congress and President Obama), students, with their teachers and parents, also learn first-hand of the high standards these technological professions demand, and the high level of preparation needed on students' part to succeed in such fields -- skills such as critical and analytical thinking, creative problem solving and how to work effectively in groups. Thus, the Festival helps kids make an important mental connection about what high academic expectations really mean -- and how to achieve them in challenging subjects they once were afraid or reluctant to tackle.
It's clear that our schools and teachers cannot do this task alone. And while it is imperative that parents do their part as well, there is also an important role for businesses, universities and other community partners -- which is why the Festival brings all of these entities together to help inspire students. The Festival's inaugural event last year, which culminated in a massive Expo celebration at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., attracted more than half million participants and visitors. This included not only a wide array of world-class science and engineering speakers and presenters representing fields ranging from astrophysics and aeronautical engineering to biology, chemistry and nanotechnology -- but also esteemed Nobel Laureates and more than 750 leading organizations and businesses in technology which served as sponsors and Expo exhibitors.
The Festival's next event in 2012 will expand to encompass international science and engineering innovation, so we look to have even more of an impact.
Our challenge is apparent: In our highly competitive and technological world, where knowledge is the most valuable commodity we can offer our children, the future belongs to the nation which not only educates, but sets high standards for its children.
Follow Larry Bock on Twitter: www.twitter.com/usasciencefest
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@tmatlack
you graduate .... with no skill..
Some "economic experts" think that the USA can become a "post-industrial" society of "knowledge workers" consisting of software developers, data analysts, technicians, editors, scientists, lab technicians, teachers, doctors, nurses, architects, accountants, engineers, inventors, lawyers, poets, musicians, historians, philosophers, etc, and still somehow generate sufficient wealth to continue payment to foreigners for foreigners to manufacture the food, shelter, clothing, and the other things that US citizens consume.
How does anyone think that US citizens can get foreigners to pay for (buy) the services of these "US knowledge workers" if their home grown local "knowledge workers" are equal to, or maybe technically superior to, our "US knowledge workers", especially if their home grown local "knowledge workers" will work for less US dollars than US citizens?
I do not think that any foreign individual or foreign country would ever purchase any of the services of any US educated liberal arts, MBA, history, philosophy, English, foreign language, economics, musical, artist, social worker, government, political scientist or any of the other similarly educated US citizen graduate at any price.
If US companies will not hire these non-technical graduates, why would any foreigner pay for their services?
How can US citizens earn enough US dollars to pay for the import of the products from foreign countries that we consume unless our education system completely changes course and re-emphasizes science and engineering similar to the 1940's and 1950's, instead of other studies that do not contribute positively to our balance of trade?
We need to stop the net foreign flow of US dollars, US gold and title to privately owned US assets out of this country. All of these privately owned US assets will all soon be foreign owned.
After we have sold foreigners the title to all of our privately owned wealth and assets, US citizens will not be able to pay foreigners to manufacture the things that US citizens consume. US citizens might have to start making these products in the USA.
US citizens cannot make the products that we consume unless US citizens re-industrialize and manufacture these things ourselves, or just stop consuming these products.
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US services would have to be provided by doctors, scientists and engineers who are very much superior to any foreign educated doctors, scientists and engineers, or the foreigners will use their home grown or some other more technically advanced foreign country's medical, scientific and engineering talent, and then not buy the services of US doctors, scientists and engineers.
Foreign countries will always seek the most technically advanced scientific and engineering resources if they do not have these resources locally available.
Existing US Science and Technology WILL NO LONGER CREATE JOBS and/or save the USA economy since we have completely destroyed our technology base with our collective de-industrialization.
Asian countries are producing very competent scientists and engineers that are probably more technically qualified than the US educated engineers, while the USA produces MBA's, psychologists, poets, artists, musicians, historians, economists and other non-scientific graduates.
The Asian countries produce very few non-technically educated students.
Student loans should be available for only those fields such as science, engineering, education, and medicine that do contribute to re-constructing our industrial base and that will help our international trade balance by re-creating the US technical knowledge base necessary for re-industrialization.
In the Asia the vast majority of the college students are majoring in science or engineering.
The USA needs to increase the percentage of USA citizen college students studying science and engineering from 5% to more than 70%, in order to emulate the economic industrial successes of the Asian countries.
We must emulate the educational systems of China, India, Pakistan, and other Asian countries or the USA will die economically.
The USA needs to replace our current "dumbed-down equal outcome" educational process with some sort of selective process in order to allow selection of only the best and the brightest to qualify for science, technology and engineering educations.
We must provide financial incentives for these students want to study science and technology instead of other less difficult pursuits of study.
The financial salary rewards to study science and technology in the 1950's made science students much respected by other students, and this inducement/reward needs to be re-introduced.
Today, most students make fun of and demean science and engineering students.
I would point you to this article on Huffington Post concerning Evolution vs. Creationism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/evolution-vs-creationism-_n_815664.html
That article summarizes, "Evolution, Creationism and the Battle to Control America's Classrooms," by Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer.
Perhaps rather than focusing on the standards applied to students, we can look at the standards applied to the teachers who we are charging with preparing these students. Seriously, how is a student who is taught by a teacher (apparently 13% of the teacher population) that Creationism is science supposed to understand, let alone score well on, science?
Perhaps even the standards are not to the teachers. We might be best to look at hiring practices that target professionals with the proper backgrounds to teach subjects. Rather than selecting a teacher, and then shoving them into a slot to teach a subject outside their primary expertise, we should get the right people from the outset.
Perhaps we should look at state standards for teachers. Or perhaps National funding for STEM.
Do you see my point? This is a system. Everything is interconnected. It is not just holding students to high standards. If you do that, and you don't have the system components in place to support and encourage student attainment of those high standards, it is demoralizing and counter-productive. This systems view is a basic component of science, and perhaps we need to consider it more in our thinking about schools.
creating a learning environment that educates all students to their fullest potential is process oriented.
learning is process not just setting standards. those standards will have teachers evaluated for achieving those standards and they will learn to fudge the system to keep their jobs.
americans are great at setting standards and goals and fail in the part of making it work. an individualistic culture will fail because of its lack of systemic mentality.
about the only thing taught in our universities to improve is to create a pay for performance agendas that has so many negative side effects you could write a book on them.
That's why so many of the best and the brightest are going to business school and law school, instead of graduate and medical school.
If you want the best, you have to *pay* for the best.
The jobs for science and engineering graduates are being eliminated from the USA and relocated overseas or filled by H1b immigrants.
This situation needs to change for the benefit of the US economy.
I believe that most students today want to study business and/or economics in order to become one of the wealthy Wall Street (master criminal) business tycoons.
No person in his or her right mind would major in science or engineering since the pay scale has eroded so much in the last few decades, the jobs are being eliminated by outsourcing, and the study is so demanding compared to several other less demanding and more rewarding fields of study.
Asian countries are now outdistancing the USA in producing very large numbers of competent scientists and engineers that might be even more creative and more competitive than the US educated scientists and engineers.
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