The World is Flat

Thomas Friedman’s book about the convergence of technologies changing the nature of
the world has been revised three times since it was published early in 2005. The ‘flattening’ Friedman refers to is the leveling of the economic ‘playing field’ between the developed west and the growing powers of rapidly developing economies like India and China. ‘Flattening’ is characterized by faster communication worldwide, the development of alternative ways of sourcing and producing goods and services, and the shifting of expertise to a mobile and highly educated cadre of knowledge workers from the second world. During the past eight years, most of the effort in education has been focused on
the tool of literacy as if it were the reason that the United States was falling behind
economically and technically. Friedman points out that the lead the United States had in producing engineers during the post Sputnik years has evaporated and that we are actually not keeping up with the demand for highly trained STEM workers. The average age of practicing engineers in the US is over 50, while India is turning out tens of thousands of highly qualified engineers every year. No Child Left Behind has sucked the air out of any efforts to prioritize science in elementary schools, even though this is a critical period for students becoming excited about career paths. I recommend every STEM educator read The World is Flat (ed 3) and try to get the information in this book disseminated to administrators and colleagues ASAP.

Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005-7. ISBN 978-0-312-42507-4