With the USA Losing Research Leadership, What Languages Should Your Kids Be Learning?
Many will not find surprising a recent research report issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that confirms that the United States has lost or is losing leadership in many scientific research areas to other countries. The following is from the overview report published in the January 21, 2022 Science:
A new data-rich report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirms China has overtaken the United States as the world’s leader in several key scientific metrics, including the overall number of papers published and patents awarded. U.S. scientists also have serious competition from foreign researchers in certain fields, it finds.
That loss of hegemony raises an important question for U.S. policymakers and the country’s research community, according to NSF’s oversight body, the National Science Board (NSB). “Since across-the-board leadership in [science and engineering] is no longer a possibility, what then should our goals be?” NSB asks in a policy brief that accompanies this year’s Science and Engineering Indicators, NSF’s biennial assessment of global research, which was released this week. (NSF has converted a single gantuan volume into nine thematic reports, summarized in The State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2022.)
It is probably inevitable this would happen. Scientific literacy has been declining in the US for some time. Other countries have been more disciplined about basic education. For evidence one need look no further than the arguments made by those in the US who oppose basic public health measures such as vaccination. That such arguments have become political is a further indication of how US literacy and education levels have deteriorated.
Attacking the decline is not really why I’m writing this. My concern is with a very practical issue: what languages should kids be learning in school?
First and foremost, kids should be learning English — how to read it, how to speak it, how to write it. That may sound like a trivial recommendation but as any high school or college teacher will attest, the ability of students to read and write is a major issue in the US. This inevitably filters into the ability to study and communicate about scientific and technical subjects.
As fas as a second language is concerned — I learned Latin in high school but that was back when the earth was still cooling — these days I would recommend either Chinese or Spanish. Chinese, obviously, will be useful from a business perspective and because China’s R&D efforts are so immense. Even if English remains the dominant language for communicating research around the world, the sheer size of China’s economy and its support for basic education will inevitably erode US leadership even more than is now the case.
Spanish is for me an obvious second choice, not only for extended family reasons — I would love to be able to converse with my son in law’s family in Spanish — but also because I believe in the mental benefits of being able to converse in multiple languages, especially when Spanish is so popular here in the US.
Ultimately, though, the USA’s declining leadership has implications beyond what languages we speak. I can still remember the shot in the arm Sputnik gave US education and how governmental policy in response dictated pumping up the quality of scientific education in US schools. Would such a Federally-led effort be possible today given the shortcomings of public understanding of how diseases spread? Sadly, I have my doubts.
Copyright (c) 2022 by Dennis D. McDonald
