Younger Americans Fare Poorly on Skills Against International Peers

online.wsj.com

10 points·vellum··3 comments

I began to notice this when I was hiring writers and editors in Taiwan... At first, I was thinking that maybe since I was abroad I was getting a limited cross-section of those interested in working in Taiwan. But, as time went on and I began to hire others from other regions to work from where ever they were, I noticed the same trend.

A high school friend of mine left Australia for Boston circa 12 or 13. When he came back circa 19 he said he hadn't needed to do any homework, had already learned mathematics in Australia before leaving that they never even got up to teaching him in the US, and cruised through to ace every class. Now, he was smarter than the average and we were at a pretty reasonable school, but I don't doubt that he was telling the truth and kids are simply not challenged by a typical US high school syllabus.

The brain peaks around the very early 20s .. teenage years are a great time to invest in knowledge. If the whole country screws that up, it has to have an effect.

I knew/know people who took multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations at a community college while in high school. As far as I know, there is nothing stopping most people from doing this. By the way, this is 1 or 2 math courses short of the amount of math most universities require of most technical majors. You might need something on statistics or discrete math.

So you have a story about dropping standards. I have a story about motivated people getting an 'advanced' education at the same level of schooling.

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