Sputnik Moment

Article Links: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/obama-calls-for-new-sputnik-moment/ http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/october-4-1957-soviet-union-launches-sputnik-satellite/ I wanted to investigate what Mr. Fischer told me about the US education system including poorer students while other, higher ranked systems fail to educate the less-fortunate, thereby boosting their scores. I would discover that this theory had some merit but that is what I will address in my next blogpost. For now I want to write about an article I found while researching explanations of our educational differences with other nations. This article essentially argued that no explanation or justification matters because we, as a society need the motivation of failure to improve our education system. It was not explicitly mentioned but it seemed to me the author was calling for an exaggeration of the education crisis in order for us to have a "sputnik moment" (the original sputnik moment happened when the USSR's satellite launch in 1957 reveled just how behind we were and lead to a period of educational and scientific investment that culminated with the moon landing) and reinvest in our education system. It is true that we have a disproportionately high level of satisfaction with our educational system compared to our outcomes and we do have a history of high-level educational achievement and an economy that can support more educational investment. However, is misleading people about the quality (or lack thereof) of their education worth enough to outway the dishonesty inherent to such an action? I don't know but it seems to me that in education, more than anything else, honesty is vital. Nonetheless I do think that not matter what the true state of our education system is we should always be striving to make it better, even the best nations (and US states) are cosntantly redefining their educational policies, re-training teachers and finding new ways to teach students.