The Big Dog, Education and National Security

One of the best bosses I ever worked for was a man I'll call The Big Dog. I could write a whole novel about him and his wonderfullness. Let me sum him up by saying, they just don't make them like him anymore.

He ran an office at the university where I worked with grants.  He knew his job and he knew it well.  Although he was not a PhD he never succumbed to the hierarchy of the University setting.  He knew what he was supposed to do and no one could ever bully him into anything that he didn't think was ethical.  I loved that man and it was a sad day for me when he retired.

He regularly worked with esteemed national agencies (think Department of Defense, Department of Energy and NASA) as well as other major organizations which were funding our grants at the University.  Big deal negotiating involving tons of money was a daily occurrence and he was at the helm.

After 2001 when National Security became such a huge priority many agencies wanted only U.S. born people to work on many of those grants.  In fact, they insisted on it. 

All well and good, the problem was, as put by my boss, "there ain't that many U.S. born left to work on those national security related projects".

Many of the people studying engineering and science at our university were foreign and often they were going back to their home country once they received their degrees. A homegrown U.S. student was actually rather rare. 

So how does this relate back to dyslexia and us one might be asking at this point?

Here is my theory:

If essentially all the schools in this country are like streams eventually feeding into our big rivers (universities) and these streams are running dry (in the form of not properly educating our future scientists, mathematicians, engineers, doctors and so on) then when you get to the big rivers (college) and eventually the ocean (post-doctoral) there are simply not going to be many people there who are from this country. 

If the math-strong but language weak child of today hates school they are certainly not going to make a life-long study of it. 

The typical university game of basing acceptances on the grade point averages of high school and SAT scores are not going to allow children to go to our better universities, this, in turn, will keep holding down our children who potentially could be an asset to our country in the area of math and science.

The potentially great student with different strengths other than language is being turned away and this is frankly, a loss to our own country's security.

Truth be known I have lived in other countries and I have seen them doing things in what I considered a much better way than this country (nationally supported healthcare, much better public transportation).

 I do not consider myself a nationalist but I am a concerned citizen.  This is my country, I believe in it, what it can and sometimes does stand for, it's history.  This is where I want to live and raise my family and grow old and hopefully one day see my grandchildren make their life.

I do not want to be scared that China has increased it's military strength by 80% in the last decade.  I know people who have been there and I do understand that their overpopulation problem (as well as lack of females) could lead my country into a vulnerable position where others want what we have (space, affluence, females, etc. )

So sorry, I digress but there it is.  My theory about National Security and how it relates back to your local kindergarten class.