Dear Mr Chopra and Gallagher, 

I am approaching your request for comments on improve Government standards 

(http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/07/setting-standards-we-want-hear-you) in science 

and technology from a different perspective: Education, specifically Education at the High 

School Level. 

I realize that this has minimal relevance on the overall focus your office may have, but part of 

the bifurcation of this society, whereby we have a large swath of our population ignorant to basic 

concepts in Science and Technology is the lack of coordination in the disciplines between 

Educators and Business. 

If you allow me, I'll make my point first, then state what my recommendation is about setting 

standards in Science & Tech. 

My point is simply this. America will be an amazing landing strip to facilitate commerce and 

operate in a global society with rigorous rules and regulations, but as a country, where citizens 

are the fiber of a nation, and not the wires and (electro-magnetic) waves that run through it, 

Americans largely will simply be spectators to the great transformations of the informational age. 

 Of course this is not the sort of feedback you are look for, but it needs to be said - after all the 

office of the Presidency must support any policy that is in the best interest of the People. 

My recommendation is that you simultaneously embrace Educational mandates for High 

Schoolers in the implementation standards in Science and Technology, so that these 21st century 

guidelines can be integrated into the curricula. You should appoint a person on your committee 

(perhaps from the Dept of Ed or an external educational expert) who's role is to not only inform 

and educate HS educators about the "Standards" that dictate how companies and organizations 

operate in the fields of Science and Technology, but also educate educators about the rationale 

and logic that was used to develop these new guidelines. 

Similarly we need standards for the world of work. Secondary schools must understand what it 

takes for a HS student to function at a high level in the 21st century. Instead of High Schools 

dictating to society the functional level of intelligence in Science and Math, society also should 

be dictating to educators what the "business" standards are for success in the modern age. I'm 

afraid for too may students, college is to late to impart the Intelligence Quotient. Hence, IMHO, 

the WH should do more to encourage business and enterprising individuals to support schools in 

their mission to educate students. At our corporations, we have some of the smartest people in 

the world, creating amazing, next-level innovations, yet very little is done to foster substantive 

relationships with companies and secondary schools. It's time you ramp this up. You have the 

megaphone, with a few words you can motivate the masses in a profound way - politics be damn. 

As Executive Director of The Artisan School Center, a NYC non profit assisting HS educators 

on strategies to integrate industry and academics in the curricula, we are at the juxtaposition of 

Education and Commerce. We tell folks every day, we live in an ultra-capitalist society, yet still 

we educate students with blinders on to the realities taking place in our global environment. As a 

consequence the majority of American HS students are churned out of secondary schools each 

year oblivious to the ways of the world - how this country operates and where they fit. In the age 

of innovation, this is disastrous to the future of these youth and our country. 
Thank you for your time, and I hope my comments were of value some how, if not in this forum, 

perhaps another. 

Sincerely yours, 

Chris Barriteau 

Christopher Barriteau 

Executive Director

The Artisan School Center

www.artisanschool.org

chrisb@artisanschool.org

917.841.8435