The World is Flat?
Recently I've been hearing a lot of mentions about this book called The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It isn't really a new title to me since I heard my geometry teacher lecturing my class last year about it, trying to get us motivated to do our work and such. I obviously didn't take it very seriously since I had some pretty bad, GPA damaging grades in there, but it was still okay (A to -A). I digress... I have recently been interested in actually finding out what the book discusses so I picked it up. It's a rather large volume, and frankly, I think it would be a waste of time to read it.
No one needs to read 550 or so pages of someone repeatedly stating that "the world was flat." But perhaps it would be more useful to other Americans, but to me, this has been a source of great frustration in my life. I would like to be getting a better education, but it just doesn't seem to be happening. School is still rather taxing, but I think that I could be better if there was more difficulty to inspire me to work harder. Today I commented that it seemed like a waste that we wrote ten essays over twelve week trimester in the fall for my English class, but now in the spring term, we have hardly had to do anything. Of course the people around me started erupting with calls telling me to shut up because they did not want any more work. I certainly don't want more work, but I am not vehemently opposed to it as they are. It seemed like a waste to me to slam incoming students with such a workload and then just ease up on them as the year progresses rather than building them up to be better. I think that it really does not make them better writers because they get more time to work rather than learning to work quickly and efficiently.
I find that this incident today is rather illustrative about the problems of American society. Children are not taught that they should work hard, and even I have to say that I feel a bit disappointed in myself because I am lazy despite the high value I have for work ethic. It is natural that humans take the path of least resistance; therefore, it is society's responsibility to always provide them with greater challenges and motivate people to work to accomplish them. A large portion of the book seems to focus on the reasons why Americans have lost their lead above other nations in terms of technological innovation. Friedman blames this on the lack of motivation to pursue training in math and science and cites the great enthusiasm found in recent immigrants who find that American schools are not challenging enough. I can say from personal experience that it is true because I am not doing my best although according to my GPA and all the other measurements in American public education, I'm scoring among the best. I always have had a disdain for American born Asians. It noticed many years ago that as more generations of an Asian family have lived in America, the stupider and lazier they are. My parents are extremely hard working, and although I only have a small fraction of their work ethic, I am considered very diligent by American standards. That is upsetting because it is not okay to celebrate mediocrity.
I am not saying that Asian standards are really great either. It saddens me that we must do the right thing regardless of how we feel about the matter. It was basically our, my brother and I, duty to our parents to be an engineer or a doctor, someone who would make a good living. It did not matter whether we wanted to or not although it was essentially ingrained into our minds that this was what we needed to do in order to be happy. There really are no outside pursuits for happiness in the work place. Not extremely nice, but nevertheless, it was to be our lives. I am glad that I am skilled at doing what is expected of me; not all Asians were born geniuses, but if they weren't, they have a difficult struggle ahead of them because standards do not change just because they had other skills that society did not really value. All these other Americans have such bizarre dreams of being basketball stars although they are not very good at basketball or becoming a writer as if that really earned much of a living. To me, I see no other future other than those few career options. Is that really pathetic? I am unsure, but I am sure that society likes people like me very much because they are nice people to exploit, much like encouraging people to raise families so the government has more boys to throw at our latest enemy. (Another point from class, people don't like hearing the truth if it isn't very nice. Is America really taking advantage of economic situations? Aren't developing countries just poor countries? I just I really do have to add cynical comments, but whatever does not eventually end sadly? I digress again...)
Do Americans honestly need a book in order to notice and understand that they are the source of their own miseries? It is no one's fault (except maybe their parents who cheated them out of a good education by demanding lower taxes and not pressuring them and teachers to get more out of education) that they are not skilled enough for the high paying jobs available now. I feel no sympathies, and in fact, it comes with a bit of relief that there are people who are not at my level so there is less competition. There are already enough people to worry about.
No one needs to read 550 or so pages of someone repeatedly stating that "the world was flat." But perhaps it would be more useful to other Americans, but to me, this has been a source of great frustration in my life. I would like to be getting a better education, but it just doesn't seem to be happening. School is still rather taxing, but I think that I could be better if there was more difficulty to inspire me to work harder. Today I commented that it seemed like a waste that we wrote ten essays over twelve week trimester in the fall for my English class, but now in the spring term, we have hardly had to do anything. Of course the people around me started erupting with calls telling me to shut up because they did not want any more work. I certainly don't want more work, but I am not vehemently opposed to it as they are. It seemed like a waste to me to slam incoming students with such a workload and then just ease up on them as the year progresses rather than building them up to be better. I think that it really does not make them better writers because they get more time to work rather than learning to work quickly and efficiently.
I find that this incident today is rather illustrative about the problems of American society. Children are not taught that they should work hard, and even I have to say that I feel a bit disappointed in myself because I am lazy despite the high value I have for work ethic. It is natural that humans take the path of least resistance; therefore, it is society's responsibility to always provide them with greater challenges and motivate people to work to accomplish them. A large portion of the book seems to focus on the reasons why Americans have lost their lead above other nations in terms of technological innovation. Friedman blames this on the lack of motivation to pursue training in math and science and cites the great enthusiasm found in recent immigrants who find that American schools are not challenging enough. I can say from personal experience that it is true because I am not doing my best although according to my GPA and all the other measurements in American public education, I'm scoring among the best. I always have had a disdain for American born Asians. It noticed many years ago that as more generations of an Asian family have lived in America, the stupider and lazier they are. My parents are extremely hard working, and although I only have a small fraction of their work ethic, I am considered very diligent by American standards. That is upsetting because it is not okay to celebrate mediocrity.
I am not saying that Asian standards are really great either. It saddens me that we must do the right thing regardless of how we feel about the matter. It was basically our, my brother and I, duty to our parents to be an engineer or a doctor, someone who would make a good living. It did not matter whether we wanted to or not although it was essentially ingrained into our minds that this was what we needed to do in order to be happy. There really are no outside pursuits for happiness in the work place. Not extremely nice, but nevertheless, it was to be our lives. I am glad that I am skilled at doing what is expected of me; not all Asians were born geniuses, but if they weren't, they have a difficult struggle ahead of them because standards do not change just because they had other skills that society did not really value. All these other Americans have such bizarre dreams of being basketball stars although they are not very good at basketball or becoming a writer as if that really earned much of a living. To me, I see no other future other than those few career options. Is that really pathetic? I am unsure, but I am sure that society likes people like me very much because they are nice people to exploit, much like encouraging people to raise families so the government has more boys to throw at our latest enemy. (Another point from class, people don't like hearing the truth if it isn't very nice. Is America really taking advantage of economic situations? Aren't developing countries just poor countries? I just I really do have to add cynical comments, but whatever does not eventually end sadly? I digress again...)
Do Americans honestly need a book in order to notice and understand that they are the source of their own miseries? It is no one's fault (except maybe their parents who cheated them out of a good education by demanding lower taxes and not pressuring them and teachers to get more out of education) that they are not skilled enough for the high paying jobs available now. I feel no sympathies, and in fact, it comes with a bit of relief that there are people who are not at my level so there is less competition. There are already enough people to worry about.