Sunday, May 14, 2006
Is it all about making money?
I am thoroughly enjoying The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. But his chapter on America’s great crisis raises some interesting questions, questions I think I need to process over the next few days....
So, Friedman drills home the fact that America is falling way behind in everything from Math and Science graduates to broadband. Now. putting aside the fact that every single solution he proposes is a national government one (and his occasional screeds against the Bush administration...some warranted, some not). The first question we have to ask ourselves is, “Do we want to become Asian”?
I ask this because the national suicide rates in nations like Japan (which has the same number of suicides as the U.S. with half the population...and it is not primarily a teen problem there as here) show that there is a great deal of stress in these nations. Success (economicly meaured) is everything (add in a high honour/shame based culutral element), which perhaps explains why nations like South Korea, China and India will surpass the USA in the coming decades economically. But is that all there is?
I agree with Friedman that American kids watch too much television and are not challenged enough academically. I am not prepared to say that the answer is for us to become like China and India. I am not prepared to say that making children give up play and focus solely on their economic future beginning in 4th grade is a good thing....
....
Well, more on this later
