The Decay of An Age

Guest post by Elena House-Hay

and Brian Heljenek

Online English 101

            The average American spends 32 hours a week on the internet (“Average Time …”). News articles describe research grants allotted to transistor technology, the discovery of “God Particles” in science, and new ways to save energy. Now, it seems, more than any time in human history, science and math are taking over the news and the population. Everything is going digital, from books to magazines to newspapers, and it is all one can do to keep up. One can only guess that the future will be even more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) related and make education in STEM necessary to govern nations and move the economy. It is a wonder, then, that education in America is failing to effectively teach students about STEM subjects. Science and math are essential to modern society and yet the current educational system fails to stress the importance of math and science to its future leaders.

            One may argue against the need of technology in the modern world, but said person would have a flawed argument. Technology is essential to a successful nation or business. Technology can bring down top-secret national programs, as Israel’s devastating cyber-attack on the Iranian nuclear program demonstrated (Nakashima 1). A digital attack shut down fans in an Iranian nuclear facility, destroying equipment and delaying the process of Iran’s nuclear program. The single attack greatly incapacitated Iran’s energy development and weakened any clout they would have gained in the nuclear community. An entire nation moved back years at the hands of STEM educated hackers. To Iran, STEM became very important. Apart from governments, the private sector has also seen the power of technology and has taken on engineers and scientists to make a profit. Businesses like Apple and Google have built empires on STEM related fields and companies from auto builders to gardening services use digitized invoices and engineered equipment to conduct business.  These successful businesses will not go away soon and it is very likely they will expand. The demand for people to work at these companies can therefore increase even as non STEM companies fail. Tech companies are the future of business and STEM related jobs for private companies or government anti-cyber-warfare will fuel the economy. And as for anyone who says that growing companies and national security are not important to society, the history of America, a country of entrepreneurship, strong defense, and a world power, contradicts him.

            With the obvious need for STEM educated workers, it is up to the  educational system to push students into STEM fields. However, America is lagging behind other countries in its attempts to educate its youth. Qualitatively, America is ranked 29^th science proficiency, below many other nations such as Finland, China, and Canada (Paulson 1). Fiscally, the US ranks 37^th in education spending as a percent of GDP (“Education Spending …”). Locally, many schools have policies that are not helping America’s low science rankings among developed countries. One school, Perkiomen Valley, even  has policies that make it harder for STEM oriented students to pursue post-secondary education in STEM. Its policies allow seniors to drop a science or math course and replace it with social studies course or a free period. Even in freshman year, STEM students are held back. Non-STEM students can take an Advanced Placement (AP) in Social Studies course their freshman year while STEM-bound students cannot take any AP math or science classes until their Junior Year. As a result, STEM-bound students often have to cram multiple science classes in the last two years of high school though they still need to take Social Science classes and English all four years of high school. This puts additional stress on STEM students versus Liberal Arts students and as a result, many graduates of Perkiomen Valley are not prepared for the rigors of STEM colleges. This discourages students from joining STEM career paths and ultimately, decreases the amount of STEM workers. This school is not alone in its policies. Across the country, states are cutting funding to public high school and college science programs, limiting the education of STEM students (Cohen 1). This trend will only continue unless the world realizes the need for STEM funding and education.

            Without a change in policy, America’s decline as a science and math leader, which started in the post-space race era, will continue. Any technological field based on science and math will falter unless it can expand and come up with new and innovative ideas from innovative people. Failure to produce ideas leaves the US vulnerable. Other developing countries lie in wait to take over US innovation, as the Japanese domination of the auto-industry shows. Losing the auto industry has clearly had an effect on the economy, as Detroit can attests. Losing companies such as Apple and Google to other countries that realize the importance of STEM would be just as devastating to not just one city, but multiple cities that rely on tech companies such as Seattle, San Diego, and Boston. The government as well would be open to cyber attacks on par with Iran’s critical loss without STEM expertise. The Government has already lost control over encrypted information, illustrated by the leakage of sensitive documents via wikileaks. Without precautions, it will lose more. Any STEM proficient adversary exploit technological weakness the US and break down the barriers of defense the US has built. The loss of security would be psychologically damaging, as the attacks of 9/11 were to the national psyche. The attacks could also result in a loss of infrastructure, through the hundreds of ready warheads hackers could activate electronically. In these situation, the loss of technological control will result in loss of America’s integrity. 

            With such large security and economic consequences looming, it is time for America to improve STEM education. The low international rankings show that we are falling behind, as do local examples. The  future of the United States, publically, privately, and defensively, hangs on what the nation does next and what we can accomplish locally and internationally.

Works Cited

"Average Time Spent Online per U.S. Visitor in 2010." Average Time Spent Online per U.S. Visitor in 2010. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/01/average-time-spent-online-per-u-s-visitor-in-2010/>.

Cohen, Steven. "The Danger of Cutting Federal Science Funding." HuffingtonPost.com. HPMG News, n.d. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/the-danger-of-cutting-fed_b_819439.html>.

"Education Spending (% of GDP) Statistics - Countries Compared - Nationmaster." NationMaster.com. NationMaster, n.d. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_edu_spe-education-spending-of-gdp>.

Nakashima, Ellen, Greg Miller, and Julie Tate. "U.S., Israel Developed Flame Computer Virus to Slow Iranian Nuclear Efforts, Officials Say." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 20 June 2012. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-israel-developed-computer-virus-to-slow-iranian-nuclear-efforts-officials-say/2012/06/19/gJQA6xBPoV_story.html>.

Paulson, Amanda. "New Report Ranks U.S. Teens 29th in Science Worldwide." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 05 Dec. 2007. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1205/p02s01-usgn.html>.