Will the U.S. be able to compete in the world, given the state of it's educational system?
599446
they are all fat and lazy
89691
The power had to shift eventually!The U.S.has been running things for about 2 hundred years.Those other nations are acient,1000's of years old .So they don't like being pushed by an infant nation!But we can compete if we start putting more money into education,in small businesses,and start producing products that will out compete their competitors in the global market.
794500
Theres no such thing, because each US state (& then there's the US national standards) & each country have their own educational standards. You can't compare worldwide because of economic and cultural differences. Usually there are some very good schools in metro areas, but there's always the downfall of them being huge and overcrowded even though they have an abundance of resources. Suburbs and rural areas are sometimes the place to look. The circumstances vary so much from person to person and school to school, that that's why so many schools exist --- to harbor everyone's needs.
43221
USA is very powerful!
381697
Not anytime soon, that's for sure. The U.S. will never win a world cup as long as the best athletes in America play other sports. For god sake the game is called football not soccer. And as long as the leagues in America have no talent pool and bad youth systems, there is no good outlook for American soccer.
153077
It is a big bad world out there and defective as it is, school will provides people with a few of the tools that will assist them as they play survivor for the rest of their lives. This is particularly important to students in the US as our political and financial empire loses clout.
928555
Military will still be America.  Technology would be Japan and education will be somewhere in Europe.\n\nMy reasoning?  Just what I think.
314839
Actuallly we American's DON'T have the largest chances when it comes to education. Our education system can't even compare to that of other developed countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc. American students know far less than they should. When a group of Chinese students were asked to name the first 5 US presidents they had no problem. When a group of US students were asked the same question, they were clueless. Many US High School graduates don't even understand what is happening in the own government. They don't understand International relations. They do understand which stars won the latest Emmy awards & what time their favorite shows come  on, and what the scores are for their favorite sports teams. Thei priorities are in the wrong place. Why does Bill Gates, a private citizen have to use his own resources to improve American education when the American government should be doing it? America will not be on top for much longer unless some great improvements are made.
431451
The U.S. team has already reached the depth to compete at the highest level.  With their great young stars, getting experience overseas they are a team that will shine in this years World Cup.  Their performance in the 2002 World Cup was a great start to what looks to be a successful couple of years for the U.S. national team.
374560
Not at this point no. I mean, sure...if they make it to the finals they might get a lucky goal at the last second if they can keep a tie. That'd be about the only way. There are too many teams with way more talent out there for the US to have a solid chance at winning by pure skill alone.
582429
I do not think there are any signs of that. The US federal and States system is so interlinked that that this is very unlikely to happen at all. There are few countries in the world that have as much sense of unity, in my view, as the US
696435
University education in the US is pretty much the best in the world (check the THES rankings for confirmation of this), largely because so many higher education institutions are private with large budgets, so they are able to provide top-class facilities and cherry-pick the most talented academics from all over the world.\n\nSchool education (primary and secondary) is less well regarded, this FT article shows rankings of global education systems - the US is 15th overall, but 42nd for maths and science. Incidentally, the UK is ranked higher for maths and science but MUCH lower for overall quality. It's not the best, but it's not bad either. It's also quite variable - individual states can set their own curricula, and school funding comes for the area immediately around the school - so schools in rich areas have lots of money and tend to achieve better results than schools in poor areas.\n\nIf you go to nationmaster (see sources) then you can see tables and graphs of countries based on all sorts of education statistics, it's really interesting to play around with and get a feel for how American education compares.
764502
I travel quite a bit to Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, as well as the Middle-East and are very familiar with their educational systems.  Many of my friends are also foreigners who studied over-seas and part of my own education was overseas as well.\n\nPrimary schooling in the US between k-12 does not match European standards in levels of Mathematics, Science, and Foreign Languages.  The level of education in the US is different based on where you live.  Certain cities, counties, and school districts tend to spend a great deal more money than others and can afford better instructional environment for students.  Since education is provided for by the State and not the federal government there is not a lot of standardization throughout the US nor even within a State in some cases.  For example in California you can go to an inner-city school in Los Angeles and receive an education that is inferior to one you would receive in a suburb of San Diego an hour away.  There are, however, schools and school districts that are consistently outperforming others and that information could be found on the internet.\n\nThat said, you should know that American universities are among the best in the world. Schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford, etc. are unmatched in the quality of education they impart and have in fact educated many of the world's so-called experts.\n\nI hope that answers your question.  Best wishes.
101204
I'm going to venture a wild idea, that I hope people forgive me on, it is just an idea. I think we should either imitate what they do in Japan, Germany, or France.\n In every TIMSS study, Japan is constantly and consistently at the top. In everything, from math(the best tested nation in math in all of the developed world),science( I think they're number 2) and in reading( there in the top ten(I'm not sure about rank). We score 32, 33 in terms of ranks in all major areas.Japanese students are taught from the time they start school to be self-sufficient, and to be competitive. They study, study, and study some more. In order to move on to the next level like middle school and high school, they have to take a national exam! Students definitely want to do well!  Granted, they are the most stressed children in the world, but you can't argue with results. They have a 90% national graduation rate from high school. We have a 67% high school graduation rate. American students need to be taught that in life sometimes you have to be competitive to be the best, and that there is nothing wrong with doing well in school. Our culture of nerds and jocks, where the jocks are popular is not setting the right culture for us to be competitive in the long run.\n Also in Japan everyone wants to be the best so that they could attend the best universities. True,in the US we have the same culture(i.e. for Ivies), but it is so much more pronounced in Japan. \n   In short, Japan, Germany, and France have rigor that is lacking in some parts of our school system.\n "No Child Left Behind" is a step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go, to truly have a K-12 school system that is the best in the world. We are THE BEST in research and grad school.
193048
No not in US, but depends which education system you follow. In Fiji I guess it would be also if you attend on of the Fiji Govt. run school in US
1086968
There are two answer for this:\nOne.  In our country we sadly are still so segregated by economics that we only expect the best from one group.  We expect that the lower classes to do the worst and our country has set up institutions that generate the same results year after year.  If you expect someone to do poorly that's what you will get.  In psychology it is called self-fulfilling prophecy.\nTwo.  Sadly, our education system is the same model for the last century and although it worked in the 1920s it can no longer stay at par with the education of other industrial countries.  This country is still receiving and using old frameworks of education to dictate how we educate our children.
59154
Not really - I think that America's children are just as smart as any other country's.  However, it seems to me that America does not emphasize education for children as much as other countries do; so therefore, the intelligence as the youth grows up in America is lacking and behind those of other countries.  THAT's the key right there - if we, the people of the USA, concentrated on our children's education as much as we pay attention to the sports, the welfare of 3rd world countries, the next big movie, the latest American Idol, etc., etc. then I would daresay that our education would match any of the world powers.  Intelligence really cannot be quantified as such.  Knowledge, however, can be!