The War on Math and Science

Did you know America declared war on math and science in this century?

That's the title of one of the chapters in Friedman and Mandelbaum's book, "That Used to Be Us."

If you thought we were emphasizing math and science in our schools as all the politicians keep preaching, this title grabs you and makes you say, "Huh."

But I kept reading,  I realized words don't mean anything. Action is reality. (James2:17 for a Biblical bent, which essentially says "Faith without works doesn't exist."

so what are they talking about?

Math--the huge national deficit which began to grow after 2000. Vice-president Dick Cheney saying "deficits don't matter," and politicians wanting to cut taxes. That's war on math. It won't work for you and me--let's go charge everything and then take a cut in pay--and it isn't working for our country.

The war on science--politicians--including Oklahoma's own wholly owned puppet of energy companies Jim Inhofe--claiming that man-made climate change is a hoax. I'll admit, climate change isn't all the fault of fossil fuels, but to deny what most scientists int he world document is criminal or ignorant. Ever notice how much warmer it is in cities than the country during summer? Why? Concrete, and people. that's man made climate change. Science.

Now everybody agrees the deficit is the problem, and it's fair to debate how remedy that. But to delude ourselves that we can do it by cutting revenue without cutting spending is  to live in fantasy.

To deny that we must do something to help remedy the problems of climate change is also.

America is in trouble because our actions don't match our words.

The pages of constant change

I'm reading Friedman and Mandelbaum's book, "That Used To Be Us" about "How America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back."
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/that-used-to-be-us

It's one of those slow read books that make your brain hurt. A chapter a night is about all you can take, because it's heavy food that takes time to digest.
On top of that, since so much depends on education, I keep comparing what they're saying being disconnected to the functioning of higher education, especially at UCO, and realizing how many people know this, but more alarmingly, how many people don't get it, or won't get it, or don't care. I'm referring to the need of creativity and leadership versus a system that demands lots of forms and standardization, with more and more rules coming down everyday.  Consider this comment from a business CEO:  "More and more, innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb. Innovation that happens from  the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart."

Other points  I underlined: "So sometimes you need to inject chaos into the classroom." ""Challenging the status quo is the most critical thing," for employees if a company is going to survive.

At any rate, it's been five years since Friedman wrote the landmark "The World Is Flat, "and there's been so much change since then. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2BguxRSyY
The authors say the merger of globalization and the IT revolutions (specifically the mobile IT revolution) is what America is not adapting to. Consider this  from one of the book's chapters about education:
"In 2005 Facebook wasn't even it it. It had just started up....'twitter' was still a sound, the 'cloud' was something in the sky, '3G' was a parking space, 'applications' were what you sent to college, and 'Skype' was a typo."  And the iPhone didn't exist. They write about one new businessman: "His head office is an iPad."

It's not a gloomy book, but a disturbing one. Consider this conclusion, quoting a businessman, "Once all the technology is evenly spread, "all the old-fashioned stuff will start to matter even more....the only advantage you can have is the human self....How good is your school system?,,,"The technology everyone will have."