[slipping Victoria and answering Gary....]
> It is the nature of world class universities to attract the best
> academics, both in research and teaching. There is a statistic I would be
> interested to know if anyone has access to it: what percentage of faculty
at
> universities in the USA received their primary education in the United
> States?
>
> Victoria Uren
> KMi, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
>
> ...
> > The discrepancy between our college system and our primary education is
> > amazing and nearly inexplicable. It appears that primary schooling
> > throughout Europe is superior to ours, and yet some of our universities
> > rank among the best in the world.
It's surely amazing, yet explicable. European primary education generally
puts a student on the street with the equivalent of a four-year degree from
an average American university (with exceptions; Americans who have
to wait for university to learn basic composition never really catch up
in that area). In short, U.S. public primary education is appalling.
However,
that is also a national strength. Where European students are actually
learning, they are all learning the same things. American students who
want to learn are largely self-taught. This produces a much greater range
of viewpoints, and is a major source of the startling American rate of
innovation.
Or phrased another way: the U.S. system produces great innovation,
at the cost of letting the bulk of students fall through the cracks to
ignorance and semi-literacy. European schools produce consistently
literate, educated students, at the cost of stifling students who might
have learned more on their own.
Nicholas
-- ________________________________ Nicholas Carroll ncarroll@hastingsresearch.com Travel: ncarroll@iname.com http://www.hastingsresearch.com ________________________________------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Do you need to encrypt all your online transactions? Secure corporate intranets? Authenticate your Web sites? Whatever security your site needs, you'll find the perfect solution here! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Bre3tC/Q56CAA/yigFAA/IHFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
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