A Nation of Wusses or Ready to Compete?

A funnything happened on the way to a professional football game in Philadelphiaseveral weeks back. It was cancelled due to ...  impending snow.

Is this a cautious act of a responsible local government or a sign of alarger shift in our national sturdiness? In the mind of Pennsylvania Gov. EdRendell, the situation spoke for itself: "We've become a nation of wusses.  The Chinese are kicking our butt ineverything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called offthe game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would havewalked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."

Gov.Rendell's hyperbole-laden rant just might be the first time that a leadingpublic official evoked our collective dread of "calculus" as a sign of our nation'slack of toughness. A stretch? Maybe, but he is saying something that we don'twant to readily acknowledge in this country.

Previousgenerations fought and struggled to build a great nation that providedopportunities to those who would work hard. Now our policy wonks are spendingbillions trying to develop creative ways to pry kids away from the TV so thatthey can gain the knowledge necessary to pursue opportunities for their ownfamilies.

Our push tostrengthen our national competitiveness began in 2005 with the NationalAcademies landmark study "Rising Above the Gathering Storm." The resultingfederal response was the America COMPETES Act, originally funded by stimulusmoney, and reauthorized in January. In announcing the reauthorization, the officialWhite House website framed the signing of the bill as "America COMPETES ActKeeps America's Leadership on Target."

Unfortunately,the evidence seems to show that Gov. Rendell's off-handed remark might just bemore accurate than the official release from the White House. In anunprecedented act, the National Academies recently published a five yearfollow-up to the Gathering Storm report - a quote from the executive summarysays it all: "The Gathering Storm Committee's overall conclusion is that in spiteof the efforts of  both those in government and the privatesector, the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has furtherdeteriorated over the past five years."

The authorscompiled a list of daunting statistics that provide a real perspective on thecurrent overall health of our nation. Here are a few:

Our nationdoesn't like to lose. That is one of our greatest strengths. But ourcompetition has upped their game considerably, and they are actually playing towin. Just like our grandparents and great grandparents, families around theworld today want education and knowledge so badly that they will indeed walk toschool in the snow, uphill all the way ...while doing calculus.

Geoffrey C. Orsak is Dean of the SMU Lyle School of Engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].