On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first orbiting satellite, into our solar system. Upon hearing of the launch, President Dwight Eisenhower said, “People are alarmed and thinking about science, and perhaps this alarm could be turned into a positive result.”
He was right. The thought of Soviet scientists knowing something that U.S. scientists didn’t scared politicians. They were spurred to approve a federal role in education and give drastically more funding to scientific research.
More than 50 years later, we are still in the space race for education, only this time we aren’t alarmed; we are complacent.
Saddest of all is our folly to stay on the path we’re on and repeat history.
Once again, we will see the consequences of ignoring math and science.
Although they are two of the hardest subjects to teach because they require such patience and repetition of the student, this doesn’t validate the misjudgment of the U.S. to prepare for the future. We know from the space race that research in mathematics and science offer the most progress in national security and technology to our country. Without students who are capable and gifted at science, we will fall behind in defense, medicine and many of the improvements that make our lifestyles easier.
In fact, to some degree, science is what makes the U.S. — the land of prosperity and freedom — what we recognize it to be. It was our innovation during the Industrial Revolution that produced revolutionary inventions such as the steam engine and the cotton gin.
According to a 2004 article in The Washington Post, “In a Global Test of Math Skills, U.S. Students Behind the Curve,” the U.S. ranked No. 24 out of 29 industrial countries in mathematics proficiency. The test collected data from 15-year-olds in each country over a three-year period on their ability to solve real-world applicable math problems. That data was released five years ago. Can we really believe we’re better off now, especially in an age in which the economic situation demands nationwide cutbacks in education?
As a country reliant on technological progress, we’re slipping, and other nations are catching up fast.
We are at a point in time when students in China and India are surpassing the U.S. in academics at alarming rates. It will be only a few years before they speak better English than we do.
Our strength in the past was our reputation as a nation people immigrated to because genius was rewarded. We’re at risk of losing that reputation as soon as we fall behind another country in scientific achievements.
We won the space race with the Soviet Union. But a space race with China? That could have a very different outcome.
Reach Melissa at melissa.silva@asu.edu.
