In pursuit of mediocrity?

May 13th, 2007 by k8gu Leave a reply »

I had a thought the other day as I was walking to work. It’s interesting that this country (the United States) “imports” many of its highest-skilled and lowest-skilled employees. That is, many laborers are immigrants; but, by the same token, so are many doctors, scientists, and engineers. Why is this the case? Perhaps it is because our educational system is designed to be accessible (ostensibly) to anyone? That is, it is aimed at the middle (or worse yet, the bottom).

This is really a problem of national concern: why aren’t more Americans preparing for and taking these jobs? Is the economic incentive insufficient? Perhaps it is the population? Surely it is not the educational system alone. But, if it is, certainly, something must be done!

(Note: I count among my friends and co-workers many immigrants. This is in no way meant to sleight the effort and time they have expended in achieving what they have here. I’m simply curious why America is unable or unwilling to produce these employees.)