The article by Friedman (2010) "What's Our Sputnik: [Op-Ed]. was very provoking. It made me think about "what are our priorities?" as a nation. The article discussed issues about the war in Afghanistan, then our dependence on imported oil, and the capturing of Osama. All of these issues, seems to cloud our priorities, I agree with Friedman (2010), that if those countries do not stand up and speak out about the madness going on in their midst, we are wasting valuable time and money. Then the debate about how to alleviate our dependence of oil from the oil producing countries. The author made a very good analogy about how Taiwan, a country with no natural resources, through hard work and taking responsibility, got rich by improving themselves, and not looking for a handout from someone else.
What does our country need to do to re-create the excitement and financial investment in science education as it did with the launching of Sputnik? Well we first need to put our priorities in order. We can not be "saviors" to all, when we are in need ourselves. If our country want to be competitive and obtain the title of world leaders, then our focus should be on STEM education. We have made some advances in this direction but according to Traurig & Feller (2010), there is a decrease in the number of student's pursuing careers in advanced math, science, engineering, and technology. This can halt our advances and we can fall behind other countries. If we experience another Sputnik experience we may never recover, and this will take us out of the competitive race.
We need lobbist to emphasize the need for our country to re-focus it's attention on making us independent leaders in this world of globalization. We need to make large investments in education, like China has to create a new generation of highly skilled people. Education is prioritized in countries like China which is also encouraged by other incentives to keep them interested and motivated.
References:
Friedman. T.L. (2010, January 17). What's Our Sputnik: [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)]. p. wk8.
Traurig, A. & Feller, R. (2010). Preparing Students for STEM careers. National Career Development Association.
