Mailbag: The world is passing us by in education

Probably everyone has had this bizarre experience while sitting on a train in a busy station.

You’re relaxing, reading the news and waiting to depart. Ah! Here we go! The train is moving!

You can tell because you are moving away from the train beside you. The windows and the other passengers are slipping by, faster and faster.

The only odd thing is that the train you are sitting in is remarkably stable. No clickety-clack.

Aha! You finally separate from the other train and, to your amazement, you are still at the station! It was the other train that was moving! It was an illusion!

Is that happening to our educational system? Are we getting left behind?

The last rankings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment showed that the heavy hitters in public education are Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. In math, we rolled in at 28th, right next to Italy.

It’s a little like the train illusion. The reason we are dropping back without moving is that lots and lots of other people are moving forward — they’re passing us. Our educational leadership is an illusion.

None of that might be more than a curiosity, perhaps, except that there is a clear link between education and prosperity. Where knowledge goes, money follows.

America was first for a long time. But is it really time to be 28th?

Dr. Steve Davidson

Newport Beach

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