This is one thought provoking video. (Did You Know...? 3.0)

So what do YOU take from it?  One thing that strikes me is that I'm humbled by the fact that I have always taken for granted that the U.S. would always be the best in every way.  As long as I can remember I have assumed that we would always lead the world economically, militarily, technologically, and politically.  While I am not ready to concede, it IS sinking in that the position of the U.S. as a world leader is not one that we can afford to take for granted. With that being said, the more I watch this video, the more I start to believe that some of these statistics wouldn't seem as bleak for the U.S. if you take away the techno music and analyze the context in which these stats are presented.  Almost all of the statistics about technology and the growth of the Information Age are exciting and really affect my inner Geek. If you felt, like me, that there was meant to be some veiled threat in this slide deck, see what you think of the following points.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that all of these facts are accurate. I am going to skip the mundane and merely amusing or interesting and try to pick the more controversial 'facts' in my quest to unpack this video.

1.  
   "China will soon become the NUMBER ONE English speaking country in the world."
   Number one in what? It won't be a democracy so Freedom is out.  Population? GDP? Standard of Living? HA, not likely. How soon is 'soon' anyway? I truly believe this is meant purely for shock value, to grab the viewers interest. I have to say it worked on me.
   
2. 
   "The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's... is greater than the total population of the United States"
   Without knowing what they consider to be the highest of IQ's it could be skewed. The real statistic here is that 25% of India's population is greater than the U.S. population. That doesn't surprise me all that much. What is the average IQ of that 25% and how does it compare to that of the U.S? I don't see how that translates the 'Honors Kids' slide. Maybe it does, but I would need some data. I call B.S.
   
3. 
   "We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist... Using technologies that haven't been invented...in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."
   This should just be taken out. It sounds like marketing blather rather than any kind of real statement about education.
   
4. 
   "The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38"
   I think I can say I fall into this category. If you count the different jobs I did while in the Army, I think I am bringing up the average. After thinking about it this doesn't shock me. It seems to say more about our inability to help students find what interests them and gain the skills required to succeed. People change, I used to stick needles in people's arms and stare through a microscope at fecal matter. I thought it was cool. Now I can't see how I ever did that.  I find it refreshing to think that people have options when it comes career choices.
   
5.  
   "The #1 ranked country in Broadband Internet Penetration is... BURMUDA.  U.S. #19 Japan #22"
   Okay, let's think that through. According to the C.I.A. World Fact Book Bermuda is about one-third the size of Washington, DC.  Bermuda is TINY! If you wanted to completely equip Bermuda with the latest networking hardware it would cost nothing compared to a city like Houston or Dallas, etc... This doesn't stand up when you consider the logistics and expense of equipping a country the size of the U.S. with the latest broadband connectivity. I dare say, that given that hurdle the U.S. is WAY out ahead on this. I frankly would have expected Japan to be higher than the U.S. using this narrow focus.
   
6. 
   "During the course of this presentation 67 babies were born in the U.S....274 babies in China..... 395 babies in India"
   I am not sure what is meant to be taken from these slides. At first glance I felt like I was watching the Spurs and they were losing.  So what does birthrate have to do with prosperity or standard of living? I am not a practicing anthropologist, and I am not trained in the actuarial arts, but to me it seems like an increased birthrate might make for a lot of trouble if you haven't got the resources to handle it. After a short scan of Google on International Birth Rates I was able to find several articles decrying the declining birth rates of modern civilizations.  I am going to do more reading on the subject, but I have a feeling there is more to it than pure numbers of babies born. I am seeing things like maternal mortality rates and childhood survival rates that should be factored in.  I have always assumed that developing countries had higher birth rates.  I think I am going to categorize these slides as merely interesting and not as controversial I thought when I saw them initially.

I REFUSE to refer to time epochs as B.G. and P.G. (Before Google and Post Google).  It is very interesting however to think about all those billions of Google queries every month.  How many of those queries should never have been?  How many took somebody down a dark alley into the very bowels of the Internet?

Posted on: 2/19/2009 at 11:16 PM
Categories: Miscellaneous
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