I recently had lunch with my former advisor who is now the dean of the school where I did my undergraduate. Having graduated from the school for so long, I asked my advisor about the current affairs at my alma mater. He said that he is getting really concerned about the quality of high school education in this country. He said that since I left the school, more and more freshmen in the Engineering department are being placed in the pre-calculus class. He continued to explain that these bright students who had obtained good grades from their high schools but they just haven't gone through the same rigor or level of advanced math as their predecessors did.

My advisor echoed many of the same concerns that many people have - that is the current state of education (especially in the science and engineering discipline) in this country. So far, I haven't seen or heard anything that indicates that the state of American is improving. As far as I know, all sources seem to indicate that the American innovation and education is falling behind. I still can't believe that the number 1 country in world in science and engineering can't produce enough students in these fields. What ever happen to the American competitive edge? But the bigger question is: do Americans care? Are we not investing enough in education? Has the education quality has declined in recent years? Maybe this article that I read earlier today may shed some light on those questions. While I think that the spew in this article is a little baseless and sensationalized, there is some truth in it.

10/11/2005 6:52:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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