Anya Kamenetz writes an informative piece in the latest issue of Fast Company (October 2011). Entitled, "The Irreplacable Minds," she asserts that "science and math won't improve U.S. job prospects [,] but creativity will."
She takes to task the "conventional wisdom" touted throughout the media that by applying ourselves (in the US) more fervently to STEM education, we will move ahead of our rivals elsewhere in the world. "Elsewhere" typically means India and China. However, as Kamenetz says, "If you want the truth, talk to the competition."
Inspired by an interview with the CEO of an Indian outsourcing company, she pulls apart the STEM argument. This CEO, Phaneesh Murthy, asserts that the "U.S. education system is much more geared to innovation and practical application. [...] It's really good from high school onward." As Kamenetz says, "to compete long term, we need more brainstorming, not memorization; more individuality, not standardization."
Yet what do our education gurus continue to promote?
Murthy points out that the Indian outsourcing industry is beginning to hit some limits: labor costs in India have been growing. What used to be cheap labor is not as cheap as it used to be, and that is giving some companies pause insofar as outsourcing is concerned. He's adding value by adding training (four months of it) to new hires, followed by eight months of intense mentoring with a senior person; he hopes that the US companies will adopt a similar strategy, in order to keep labor costs in check and provide more competition. In the end, he says, the investment in training in India is creating workers who are more valuable and more productive every year. However, simultaneously, they (his company) are moving more toward a standardized way of handling training. The end result of that move will be to not pay as much attention to creative achievements: the check-list of skills will prevail, meaning that "the high-quality, high-pay jobs of today become the high-turnover, low-wage jobs of the future." That may take some time to mature, but it may be inevitable.
David Autor, economist at MIT, however, underscores that plenty of jobs require "hands-on interaction in unpredictable environments," whether at the low-end (cooking food, driving a bus, caring for the elderly) or at the high-end (corporate jobs that require creativity, problem solving, and decision making); those kinds of jobs cannot be outsourced. The middle tier jobs, though, such as accounting, typing, filing (etc), can be automated or outsourced.
"Science, technology, engineering, and math are not the future. Or more precisely, they're not enough. Workers at every level benefit from an education that emphasizes creative thinking, communication, and teamwork."
Last quote of interest from Vivek Wadhwa (entrepreneur and scholar with appointments at Berkeley, Duke, and Harvard Law): "In India it takes engineers two to three years to recover from the damage of the education system. They're used to rote memorization."
As Kamenetz ends, "It seems there's still a profound need for the social, discursive, American liberal-arts model at its best."
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The half educated person, whether exclusively in the humanities, or STEM is just that - half educated.
Posted by: Steve Davenport | 10/10/2011 at 06:41 PM