I have to say that I have never been that political. I try to stay informed when it comes to politics, the war, deficit spending, but I tend to glaze over when I read articles or listen to programs. I never feel quite informed enough to have a political debate or a heated opinion. I think I prefer to wear my "rose colored" glasses and hope that the people that know what they are doing will work it all out. However, after reading the article, What's Our Sputnik, by Thomas Friedman, I do have to say that I agree one hundred percent with his opinions about the wasted money on the war and our oil dependence.
I know that there has to be some sort of repercussions somewhere that I am not aware about, but I think we should stop all the foreign aid and start to put that money back into our own country. In my opinion, our financial dependence and competition with China, along with our oil dependence with the Middle East is our Sputnik. If we worried about our own country put the money into education, specifically STEM, and technology, we would be preparing our students for the jobs of the future and the innovation that will not make us oil dependent. Innovations that will develop solutions for alternative energies for our homes, factories, and automobiles, and concentrate on environmental issues so we have a healthier planet for us and generations to come.
I feel like we need to stop interfering with everyone else's governments and how we think they should be run and worry about fixing our own. If we stay out and stop funding, then they cannot blame us any longer for their problems, as Friedman states in his article.
I am not sure if what I suggest will work or if it is even a solution. However, I think it is essential to worry about our own borders, our own citizens, our own economy, and especially our education. President Obama, states that he is in support of STEM education. Let’s hope we start to see that support in education reform. I read somewhere that we do not have enough of our own students that are prepared to be in those STEM careers and we have to continually look outside our borders to employ IT professionals and engineers. Something is wrong with that, and we need to start addressing it. The only way that I know how to help is to promote STEM education in my classroom and be a leader in my school in STEM education and awareness. That where I plan to start.
I know that there has to be some sort of repercussions somewhere that I am not aware about, but I think we should stop all the foreign aid and start to put that money back into our own country. In my opinion, our financial dependence and competition with China, along with our oil dependence with the Middle East is our Sputnik. If we worried about our own country put the money into education, specifically STEM, and technology, we would be preparing our students for the jobs of the future and the innovation that will not make us oil dependent. Innovations that will develop solutions for alternative energies for our homes, factories, and automobiles, and concentrate on environmental issues so we have a healthier planet for us and generations to come.
I feel like we need to stop interfering with everyone else's governments and how we think they should be run and worry about fixing our own. If we stay out and stop funding, then they cannot blame us any longer for their problems, as Friedman states in his article.
I am not sure if what I suggest will work or if it is even a solution. However, I think it is essential to worry about our own borders, our own citizens, our own economy, and especially our education. President Obama, states that he is in support of STEM education. Let’s hope we start to see that support in education reform. I read somewhere that we do not have enough of our own students that are prepared to be in those STEM careers and we have to continually look outside our borders to employ IT professionals and engineers. Something is wrong with that, and we need to start addressing it. The only way that I know how to help is to promote STEM education in my classroom and be a leader in my school in STEM education and awareness. That where I plan to start.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you. I usually do not say a lot about my opinions because I do not want to offend other people. I feel that we need to take care of the people in our own country that need help before we to taking care of all the other countries. We should not be in these other countries, especially since they do not even want us there. We are using all of this money to help other countries while our own country is having to borrow money from other countries to support our own...what has gone wrong here???
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up the perfect point in regards to our dependence on foreign oil. If we did appropriately fund and support STEM education, shouldn't we be able to develop alternative energy sources? Seems pretty simple to me! :) It is time we look within ourselves as a country and realize we are the only ones that can fix our problem.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that I like to avoid commenting on politics, however I think that people need to understand the urgency of STEM education in the United States. I do not think that we need another one event as huge as Sputnik, especially since several things are occuring that prove we need more scientists and engineers. I totally agree with you when you mention that it needs to start in your classroom. This is the first step to creating a more scientifically literate country. The United States definitely needs to do an internal inventory and focus on self-improvement before sending our time and our resourcse to other places. I can only imagine how our country would benefit if all attention was placed inward and on improving the education and STEM awareness.