My mom used to say, “I don’t think you could stand on the corner and hand out twenty dollar bills without making people angry.” There are multiple ways of viewing everything, but this isn’t the way I would have seen this development:
Developing countries are rapidly increasing the number and quality of college graduates, generating a sea change in the relative education advantage that advanced countries have enjoyed over literally hundreds of years… “Given recent trends in primary education, the world economy may achieve near universal literacy within a generation,â€? says Gail D. Fosler.
The title of the report, Advanced Economies Losing Lead In Education, just feels wrong. How are we supposed to respond? Are we supposed to work to re-extend our lead? How should we do this? Perhaps launch a “closed education” aimed at denying the developing world access to the educational opportunities we’re creating? We must continue to dominate and exploit them! We’re losing our lead! This talk of development was all well and good until someone screwed up and actually made a difference somewhere…
Good grief, Charlie Brown. How about a report titled, “Thank God!!! 100% of the Developing World to Be Literate by 2035!!!”