Originally Posted by Bl@ck
that's where you're wrong. enginuity and innovation have always been the american strongpoints that put this country bar-none above the rest. sure japan can build existing things better once there is something to work from, china can mass produce anything as long as they have a blueprint, and india can set up a call center for tech support as long as they have canned scripts to work from. the fact of the matter is that all three countries combined, don't have a history of invention like we do. that is what keeps the USA as a superpower.
You are right. We have innovation NOW. However, many new policies have been extremely detrimental to this. For example, the 'No Child Left Behind' law effectively tries to equal kids out in schools, in particular high schools. I experiance this in my high school (I am a junior). While scheduling for next year, I ran out of classes to take. Our school cancelled all but two or three of our AP classes (Advanced Placement...college classes for college credit taught in high school). Why? Because the teachers are needed to teach all the kids that are consistantly
failing their classes. This is seen around the country.
This trend of lowering support for the growing intellectuals in our country will eventually slow or even stop innovation. If you look at our economy, it is driven on innovation. That is how capitilism works. It is a rough fact that the vast majority of Americans contribute an extemely minimal amount to the economy. Contrary, it is the entrepreneurs, the Bill Gates, the Andrew Carnegies that drive this country. Removing support for the intellectuals of our country will only harm us. We should be pumping every little bit of support we have into them. In reality, most kids that are continually failing 9th grade language arts WILL end up working in McDonalds. Why waste the money?
If we do not change this soon, what will keep other countries from passing us up?