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Why America's School "Lag" Has Never Mattered
The Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development (OECD), a forum of the top 34 developed economies, has released an annual education report, and guess what? The U.S. has once again ranked poorly in relation to many other developed countries. An article at TechCrunch argues that we needn't worry because it doesn't matter: "However, the report implies that education translates into gainful market skills, an assumption not found in the research. For instance, while Chinese students, on average, have twice the number of instructional hours as Americans, both countries have identical scores on tests of scientific reasoning.
'The results suggest that years of rigorous training of physics knowledge in middle and high schools have made significant impact on Chinese students’ ability in solving physics problems, while such training doesn’t seem to have direct effects on their general ability in scientific reasoning, which was measured to be at the same level as that of the students in USA,' wrote a team of researchers studying whether Chinese superiority in rote scientific knowledge translated into the kinds of creative thinking necessary for innovation."
Given that innovation seems to consist of "inventing" rounded corners and the like these days, I am quite certain that scientific knowledge, or lack thereof, will not have any impact.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
They removed that Mr Nixon because he had similar thoughts like you. There are countries who have the ability to wipe American civilization off the face of this earth. Look up "Topol M".
And, yes, it is good to have a bear who keeps you trigger-happies in check somehow.
I don't see where we have been kept in check, actually.
Oh hai! Is that your former client state that we're in?
Although, I admit that idea that the Russians are calling someone else "trigger-happy" did make me laugh. Anyway, enjoy your nuclear missiles and your resurgent authoritarian state! Tell me how the new GULAG system is holding up when you get there. :)
What happens? We return fire, fast and furious. If Europe gets caught in the crossfire then, well, there's a bunch of dead Europeans. We apologize for that but it's too damned bad. They're still lucky to have the century of freedom we gave them by restraining those pesky Germans.