The Two Million Minutes Blog

Meanwhile at the Women's World Chess Championship in Turkey...

International chess competition has been dominated by Russian and East European players - both men and women - ever since Bobby Fisher left the stage in 1972.

But at this year's Women's World Chess Championship - the Chinese have proven dominant. While 24 of the 64 players were from Eastern Europe, by the final match it was down to 16-year old Hou Yifan against Ruan Lufei.

In the best of 4 match, the first game ended in a draw. In Game #2, Hou Yifan exploited a blunder by Ruan Lufei (as you can plainly see in the diagram)late in the game to take the victory.

It is only fair to note that Ruan Lufei is completing her PhD at Carnegie Mellon and was not been able to devote herself full-time to match preparation.

And the players from the USA?

Well, Ukrainian-born Anna Zatonskih and Lithuanian-born Camilla Baginskaite were the only US players and they were eliminated early in the match.

In my visit to Shanghai in August, I saw Chinese children avidly studying and playing chess at the Child's Palaces - Mao's innovation to inculcate youth with Maoist doctrine. Today, the government has converted them into centers for learning - art, music, dance, calligraphy and chess.

Does it matter that millions of Chinese - and Indian - kids are passionate about a game that teaches concentration, strategic thinking, tactical planning and subtle pattern recognition?

Probably not...

$60 Million High School Football Stadium

In the catergory of "Society Gets What It Celebrates" - Allen Texas is making a huge celebratory investment - construction has started on a new $60 million, 18,000 seat football stadium for a high school of 3,900 students.

In apparently unrelated news - High school science fairs are being eliminated around the U.S. due to budget cuts. "We had to cut somewhere," stated District Officials across the country.
NY Times: "Science Fairs Struggle to Survive."

Some College Salaries Skyrocket

At a time of cuts in education and tuition increases, it's heartening to see not all collegiate pay has stagnated.

Top college pay and annual increases:

1- Will Muschamp University of Texas - $907,000/yr

2- Kirby Smart University of Alabama - $762,350/yr

3- Todd Granttham University of Georgia - $760,600/yr

4- Ellis Johnson University of South Carolina - $706,650/yr

5- John Chavis LSU - $700,000/yr

6- Barack Obama - $400,000/yr

What do these men have in common? With the exception of President Obama, they are all ASSISTANT university football coaches.

And they are not an anomaly. In US colleges this year, 132 assistant coaches are paid more than $250,000/yr.

Lest you worry that the assistants are being overpaid - the average pay for Head Football Coaches at major universities averages $1.36 million per year.

Don't let anyone say that America is shirking it's financial commitment to higher education.

The Highest Paid Educators in America

It is comforting to know that in a year of teacher layoffs and pay cuts and massive State budget shortfalls, there are a few educators still being paid very well:
 

NEA Teachers Union President Dennis Van Roekel was paid - $397,72 in 2009 (just $3,000 less than President Obama)

NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen - $326,563

NEA Secretary/Treasurer Rebecca Pringle - $340,845

The union had another 32 union employees who made more than $200,000.

 

To round out the NEA money picture -

The NEA took in $362 MILLION in dues from working teachers

This Teachers Union spent $29,712,732 for " Political Activities and Lobbying"

Another $91,352,936 was spent on "Contributions, Gifts, and Grants"

Full NEA financial disclosure is here: NEA EXPOSED

MUST WATCH: A Brilliant, Insightful and Creative Video on Education in 21st Century!!

What happens to a dream deferred?

“Does it dry up 
like a raisin in the sun? 
Or fester like a sore-- 
And then run? 
Does it stink like rotten meat? 
Or crust and sugar over-- 
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags 
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”

Langston Hughes

While I’ve been around the world studying K-12 education, I’ve been pondering what will be America's unique advantage in global competition.

Coming out of WW2, America had the largest economy and the least infrastructural damage. That was sufficient advantage to power the U.S. to the top.

Extending that lead, came the immigration of motivated and talented foreigners who helped develop new products and educate a new young generation.

Additionally, competing with the Soviet Union pushed us to the limits of our scientific, educational and economic abilities. There was massive defense funding during the Cold War – pioneering an array of scientific research that later brought new inventions and enormous new industries.

We welcomed, or in some cases dragged, talented foreigners to our shores. After the war, the U.S. was fortunate to spirit Dr. Warner Von Braun and about 60 physicists, mathematicians and rocket scientists out of Germany.

During the war, we had already benefited from talented people fleeing the Nazis – Albert Einstein being the most prominent. Arguably NASA would not have succeeded in wining the space without our bright immigrants.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, thanks to new ERISA laws, there was an explosion of venture capital which fueled an amazing array of commercial innovations – from semiconductors to computers to software to medicine. We had what other countries lacked – a superior higher education system, a free market, large pools of capital and a national psyche that encouraged risk and didn’t punish failure.

All in America!

So what now?  With record debt levels, our K-12 education in decline, our top collegiate scientists and engineers on student visas, our national xenophobia and the stunning “rise of the rest” - where does America find its edge for the decades ahead?

We are already outmanned (& outwomanned) in scientific and engineering talent. We are nearly outgunned in economic clout. And we are being outmaneuvered in new venture creation, as Chinese companies, in particular, IPO on the NYSE and NASDAQ to fund rapid growth of companies in their home country.

I have come to the conclusion that it will be our own best and brightest – gifted and talented Americans - who might help lead a new generation of innovation, invention and entrepreneurship. America’s greatest potential natural resource is the nexus of brilliant, creative young minds and an education system that challenges, nurtures, expands and rewards their gifts and talents.

So, how does our education system treat our gifted & talented students?

We slow them down to the average; we bore them to death in school; and we ignore their unique educational needs.

It’s not fashionable to talk about spending more resources on our extremely gifted students. For now, education reformers want to close the achievement gap – a laudable and necessary goal, but one that ignores remarkable talent right under our noses.

I’m just starting down this thought path – so I would welcome knowledge from those who have walked ahead of me.

There is no quick fix to the Achievement Gap – we’ve proven that over the past 30 years.

But there may be a “home grown” fix to our declining level of scientific, engineering and artistic creativity. If only we can remove the yoke of mediocrity they now bear in our K-12 system.  I believe we must to stay competitive.

On the other side of the world - the Taiwanese government publicly explains how they treat their best and brightest: "gifted and talented students are divided into three categories - general abilities, scholastic aptitude, and special talents. Students of the first two categories are generally admitted into superior intelligence classes, while those with special talents are admitted into classes according to their individual talents (e.g., music, art, dance, athletics)."

Meanwhile, mainland China is eerily quiet on the subject…

Next Post – a young composer, with math as a hobby, and how she survived 12 years of ennui before reaching freedom and unfettered creativity.

Shanghai China Stuns World With PISA Performance

Out of the blue, Shanghai has shocked the education world by scoring #1 in Literacy, Math and Science on the world exam PISA.

One might argue that the Chinese have distorted the results in a variety of ways:

1- testing kids in China's most developed city

2- pressuring kids to take the test more seriously than their international peers

3- even stacking the deck by holding top students in Shanghai schools an extra year to get better results.

From several years experience in China, I know a few things for certain:

A- if there is a way to "game" the system, the Chinese will find it

B- national pride is a huge motivator of the Chinese people

C- winning at all costs is a Chinese attribute

Despite the carping by some, the performance is spectacular. Shanghai is a huge city - over 22 million people - 4 times the size of former #1 Finland.