Newsweek is running a story on a poll (co-sponsored with Intel) on public attitudes toward technology and economic growth. Not surprisingly, most people think technological innovation is an important factor in economic growth. Interestingly, more American's think technology will be more important in the coming decades than do Chinese (78% of Americans; 61% of Chinese). In somewhat of a surprise, the Chinese have a stronger belief than Americans that the US will remain the technology leaders in the future.
There was one part of the poll I found most surprising - and disturbing. When parents in the two nations were asked what was the most important skill their children needed to drive innovation in the future, the answers differed dramatically. 52% of American parents said "math and computer science"; only 9% of Chinese parents did. But 45% of Chinese parents said "creative approaches to problem solving" while only 18% of American parents did.
Is America on the wrong side of the future? Don't misunderstand, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is important. But the heart of innovation is not technical skills but problem solving.
Of course, it may be the case that the public is simply responding to the rhetoric of recent years. In the US we have been complaining about the problems with STEM, while the Chinese have been criticized for lacking creativity and attention to entrepreneurship.
But fixing the problems is not the same as being attentive to priority factors. With American parents putting priority of math and computers over problem solving, we run the risk of failing to build on our strengths. If that is the case, I fear that we have so narrowed our definition of "innovation" to technical activities that we have lost the big picture.
There was one part of the poll I found most surprising - and disturbing. When parents in the two nations were asked what was the most important skill their children needed to drive innovation in the future, the answers differed dramatically. 52% of American parents said "math and computer science"; only 9% of Chinese parents did. But 45% of Chinese parents said "creative approaches to problem solving" while only 18% of American parents did.
Is America on the wrong side of the future? Don't misunderstand, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is important. But the heart of innovation is not technical skills but problem solving.
Of course, it may be the case that the public is simply responding to the rhetoric of recent years. In the US we have been complaining about the problems with STEM, while the Chinese have been criticized for lacking creativity and attention to entrepreneurship.
But fixing the problems is not the same as being attentive to priority factors. With American parents putting priority of math and computers over problem solving, we run the risk of failing to build on our strengths. If that is the case, I fear that we have so narrowed our definition of "innovation" to technical activities that we have lost the big picture.
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