Challenge for America

The Did You Know? video contained information that I was aware of from reading through educational journals and attending professional development conferences. The video made me think of the end of a Spike Lee movie centered around college students self discovery. At the tail end of the movie Lawrence Fishbourne yells, "Wake Up!". Young people , and adults in our country are often so unaware of the truth about our society. B.G. ( Before Google) is just a little dose of how rapidly technology upgrades. The other information about google is also accurate, however I would like to know the amount of hits that google receives a day now...since the video was produced in 2007. Its no secret that many foreign students who attend American universities major in the STEM (Science, Math and Technology) fields. The increase in the demand for oil from China and India indicates the growth in these countries is continuing. As a parent I have always been a firm believer in studying as a means to prepare for learning. I have always supplemented at home in various topics for my children. As a teachers I always assign homework and encourage students to spend time at home reviewing their notes from school. College students who chose majors like Engineering, Pre Med, and Statistics need to be familiar with studying at length in order to be successful in these fields. The day before I watched the video I heard on NPR's Tell Me More

that, many american high school students are not used to studying for more than an hour per night, which effects there performance in college. Last year I attended a school board meeting to encourage the Williamsville School district to offer Chinese language as an option to students. My 11 year old daughter has attended Chinese school for the last 3 years and she really enjoys it. Our neighboring district of Clarence added Chinese this year and the city of Buffalo has it at several schools. To be competitive in the changing world we must prepare our children for the jobs of tomorrow... the video speaks to this very clearly. We need creativity to take us into the next century and our engineering workforce is falling behind other countries, along with our debt. We must encourage our children to rise to the challenge by demonstrating hard work and determination through our actions. The music from the video says it all right here ...right now!