Released last month, the results showed U.S. high school seniors ranking at the very bottom in physics and advanced mathematics. In general mathematics, the United States did better only than South Africa and Cyprus. Maybe we let kids wander all over hell in high school, but that preserves some energy for later when it is better spent, Harvard Chemistry Professor and Nobel laureate Dudley Herschbach half-joked in the New York Times.
Experts say the U.S. system nurtures more creativity.
Downplaying the results, columnists have been writing of our national obsession with high-technology, arguing that we are overstating the need for advanced math and science skills. A study by economists Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose reported that only 4 percent of occupations require advanced math or science. U.S. corporations will locate wherever they can find the talent they need at the lowest cost, she wrote. They might find the overseas talent here, in the American university system. There is a steady stream of foreigners filling U.S. graduate and professional programs in math and science and many of them stay.