3 ms·
It's easy to point to the feel-good topic of education and cry foul when anyone is against it. But here is the reality. America already overproduces scientist
by wes-exp 13y ago
It's easy to point to the feel-good topic of education and cry foul when anyone is against it.
But here is the reality.
America already overproduces scientists and engineers. The whole notion of talent shortages is generally hot air from special interests (in this case, tech companies) who want a cheaper supply of labor and cannot bear the idea that skilled engineers actually cost a lot.
A lot of effort is put into trying to turn ordinary folk into high-caliber professionals, with things like "everyone should go to college" or in this case "everyone should learn to code". It's not surprising educators are happy about this as it provides a steady customer base (students). Politicians are happy to support it too, after all what could be bad about more education?
The problem is that Joe laborer simply isn't a good fit for STEM fields and no amount of education will change that. He wastes his time and effort trying to become something he's not. In that time he could have been doing something productive and meaningful instead.
I've heard good things about the German model of apprenticeship, which accepts the reality that not everyone is cut out for rocket science. I'd like to see something more like that in America and less bullshit like "coding for everyone". People are different... let's encourage them to do whatever they are actually suited for.
- mikeleeorg 13y agoAmerica already overproduces scientists and engineers. Out of curiosity, do you have a link to any evidence or supporting materials to this claim? It's the first I've heard of it.
- botagrape 13y agohttp://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-i...
- wes-exp 13y agoI don't have any links off-hand, but I've seen some very convincing, scholarly analyses in the past. The research tends to come up during discussions about H1-B quotas and so on. IIRC, one of the features of a real shortage is supposed to be that prices go up, but in our IT "shortage", wages are approximately flat.
- aestra 13y agoThere's some conflicting reports and I read a pretty good analysis a while ago that convinced me, but I don't have it, here's some light reading. http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-i... http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-truth-about-the-stem-shortage-that-americans-dont-want-to-hear-2013-5 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-truth-about-the-stem... http://gizmodo.com/there-may-not-actually-be-a-shortage-of-stem-workers-at-1235528794 http://gizmodo.com/there-may-not-actually-be-a-shortage-of-s... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-the-stem-job-advantage-a-myth/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-the-stem-job-advantage-a-myth...
- mikeleeorg 13y agoWow, very interesting. Thanks for sharing. It's also interesting (and perhaps, sad) to me how there are stories in Silicon Valley where a top engineer or two are offered massive financial incentives to join another company. Those stories are usually cited as examples of a technical talent shortage in the Valley, but in reality, they are exceptions, not the rule.
- aestra 13y agoI really wish I could find the original paper I read on the subject for you. I just went looking for it again and I didn't find it. It was something I read randomly in my travels, it was really long and really well researched with lots of data. I wish i bookmarked it. I found some more interesting stuff though. http://www.issues.org/29.4/hal.html http://www.issues.org/29.4/hal.html this one has more of an "agenda" behind it http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-stem-shortage-shouters-suppress-salient-statistics http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-stem-shortage-sh...
- walshemj 13y agoBut that system rigidly streamed kids at an early age and until recently once on the apprenticeship track it limited your progression.
- wes-exp 13y agoI have to believe that there is a happy medium somewhere between prematurely categorizing kids and trying to make every single person to learn to code and obtain a 4-year STEM degree.
- walshemj 13y agoMight be better for the USA to use the British system and have kids specialize at 16 and reduce the standard degree to 3 years (seems to work for Cambridge and Oxford) thats a 25% saving in costs right there.