America Falling Behind In Sciences

I keep hearing and reading in the news: "American Students Falling Behind In Physical Sciences". Tired of reading and hearing this over and over again, I had to do something. So I went about to determine the truth, and what follows below is what I discovered.

So, is it true that Americans have been falling behind in Physical Sciences? Yes. But, physical sciences are not the only thing that Americans of today have been falling behind. They are also poor in Geography. In fact, if there’s any subject that the Americans were never good at, it was Geography. For example: Christopher Columbus, the very first American ever, was miserable in his geographical knowledge.

Even in his deathbed, Columbus refused to believe that he had actually discovered America. Not because of Oh-My-God-I-Can’t-Believe-I-Discovered-America feeling, but because he kept insisting that he had actually discovered India. He was so much confident about discovering India that he called the local Native Americans with a new name: Indians.

What else is America falling behind in? Take a guess. That’s fine, I’ll tell you. It’s Moral Science. America, as a whole today, gets a ‘D’ when it comes to Moral Science. The President keeps lying about every single issue, Senator George Allen calls some Indian American kid "macaca", and Senator Foley exchanges sexual e-mails with underage boys. I could go on about Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and Jack Abramoff’s 485 clients inside the White House, but I won’t.

So you see, America is not doing well in Moral Science. The only good thing going on for America is that it is still not the last student in the class. The Vatican maintains an ‘F’ in the class, so far, because it got "zero" in the only exam of the semester titled "How to Respect Your Fellow Religions".

The President wants to redefine the Geneva Convention so that he could torture people, as if the Geneva Conventions have stopped him from doing it so far. And this brings us to the topic of Americans also falling behind in their History knowledge.

Remember how soldiers and POWs used to be captured, tortured, and killed? For example: during WW II, more than 80 American POWs were killed by German troops in a Belgian town called Malmedy. Ask Poland if it’s okay to torture and kill POWs? Poland lost more than half its population in Hitler’s concentration camps. Incidents like those made people to come up with the Geneva Convention. So that it could not happen again.

America currently has its soldiers in many places of the world. Can you imagine them being captured and killed? The Geneva Convention does its best to protect them from being tortured and killed. Today the President of United States wants to "redefine" torture in the Geneva Convention. Don’t you think our enemies will want to redefine it their own way when they capture our soldiers?

We all know history repeats itself, but we should try not to let that happen. And America, today, is trying—but in the wrong direction, because we seem to have forgotten History.

Now, many of you may want to go back to the original question and ask, "But when do you truly know that rest of the world is leaving America behind in the physical sciences?" You know that when the David(s) from Afghanistan and Iraq fight back against the mighty Goliath that is America, with equal, if not extra, vigor. From the evidence that I see, those Afghanis and Iraqis seem to have a good grasp of Newton’s Third Principle: "Every action has equal and opposite reaction".

Although the President went to war based on the same principle, looking at the current scenario, it seems, he understood "physique" when somebody suggested him to improve his Physics. That’s why he’s in his ranch all the time—shoveling and axing his way through. Improving your "physique" knowledge, eh, Mr. President?

********************************************************
I wrote this as a column for my college newspaper. Since I am not an American, the editors labeled me anti-American. However, to their credit, they did publish this piece, though.

•  They've been saying this for years

  Yet, somehow, America still has the world's best institutions to pursue scientific research.

  The problem with a statement like "falling behind in the sciences" is it ignores the huge variance in peoples' scientific abilities.

  As with geography, many people know nothing about science and don't care to learn about it. On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of people that study science almost exclusively, whether at an undergraduate or graduate level, in a job at a corporate research lab, as a professional engineer, in the form of mathematical financial models, etc.

  On average, Americans are probably science idiots. Then again, on average, an American likely won't encounter a life issue requiring scientific knowledge. Hence, "on average" is a stupid measure of how skilled a country is.

  by dennisl on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 08:38:18 AM PDT

  •  okay...

    Here's what you're saying:

    Yet, somehow, America still has the world's best institutions to pursue scientific research.

    However, that statement is essentially flawed. I'm not saying that you're wrong. I'm just saying that the statement is flawed.

    Having world's best institutions does not make America good in science. For example: Brazil is the world's richest country in water resource, but the people still don't get to drink clean water.

    Also, if you find the statistics for Graduate and PhD science programs for US universities, you will see that almost 60 percent of the students are international students.

    But the good thing going on for America is that it has a good (better than the European) immigration policy regarding educated individuals. Many doctors, engineers, and scientists immigrate to U.S. every year. So, even if the average American is weak in sciences, America need not worry. There are good science persons coming into America every year. They provide the optimal balance.

    by mickthesick on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 08:53:02 AM PDT

    •  asdf

      I'm well aware of the statistics on international graduate students (in my department, it's closer to 75% or 80% international, possibly higher).

      However, that fact doesn't matter. In fact, I claim that having the best institutions does make for good science.

      Even if the students are international, the research is American. A lot of it is sponsored by or in collaboration with American corporations, motivated by American industrial (or government) problems, and applied to American needs. Some research problems spin off the university and become American companies. I could keep going with more examples, but these connections don't happen nearly as often with non-American companies or entities. Hence, simply having the universities benefits the state of science in America, even if those doing the research are non-American.

      Part of it is the nature of academic work, though, that makes your Brazillian water analogy flawed. Once someone drinks the water, it's no longer there. It's a consumable resource. Knowledge is not.

      It seems we are sidetracking from the point of the diary, though. Hopefully, the diarist realizes that my attack on his analogy to science can be applied exactly to his main point. (That was the point, anyway.)

      by dennisl on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 09:08:30 AM PDT

      •  no offense

        Like I already mentioned, I was not disagreeing with you with the Brazillian water analogy.

        My views, however, were not about who finances and does the research. Yes, the American educational institutions engage in fruitful research, and the rest of the world is not as much engaged. We, from the third world, owe American research a thank-you.

        But the question was more about average American than about the universities and institutions.

        by mickthesick on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 09:17:05 AM PDT

•  Only 40% of Americans

  Believe in evolution. Is it a surprise that we are falling behind in the sciences?

  by trifecta on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 09:05:51 AM PDT

  •  Not really relevant.

    We led in science long before Americans embraced "Evolution"  More to do with the crappy public school system where kids don't even reach the point of tackling higher science concepts.  The 3 R's aren't known by most at the level needed.

    by kursk on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 10:43:45 AM PDT

•  I recently put my 15

  year old in a public high school after home school and private school.  In every academic class he's in the teachers have made him a tutor.  He told me that most of the kids in his classes are utterly clueless and are where he was at in 5th/6th grade. He wants to go back to private school where he can speak to intelligent people again.  Oh well, back to working a second job...

  by kursk on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 09:12:31 AM PDT