Fixing America's schools.I read with great distress the May cover story, "Fixing America's Future," especially the chart on page 28, "How American Students Stack Up To Their International Peers." The chart is irrelevant. The U.S. is basically the only industrialized in·dus·tri·al·ize v. in·dus·tri·al·ized, in·dus·tri·al·iz·ing, in·dus·tri·al·iz·es v.tr. 1. To develop industry in (a country or society, for example). 2. country that doesn't have an elite group of centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. national bureaucrats running the country's education system and forcing many elementary and secondary students on educational tracks that define the rest of their lives--France and Japan being the worst examples. In the U.S., if you drop out of secondary school at 16, you can get a GED GED abbr. 1. general equivalency diploma 2. general educational development GED (US) n abbr (Scol) (= general educational development) → at 23, a two-year college degree at 30 and a four-year degree at 38. We're the only country in the world where you can do that. In other industrialized countries, secondary education may at times be better, but who cares, so long as the "education elite" are afforded opportunities. You are not alone in not getting it. But why not focus on what is great about the U.S.: It is the closest form of a "results meritocracy mer·i·toc·ra·cy n. pl. mer·i·toc·ra·cies 1. A system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement. 2. a. " this world has ever seen. Some in the U.S. who have a great deal of formal education--professors, for example--find it outrageous that a secondary school dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human who owns four gas stations often makes many times more than they do. We Americans will always find a way to become more productive, through whatever training is required--and that can occur many years after we leave secondary school. Ron Giuntini Executive Director OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and Product-Services Institute Lewisburg, Pa. |
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