Kristof with some good points about why the Chinese are starting to kick our butts in the field of education.  I think these trends are going to continue for, oh, the next 100 years, until they too get rich and complacent and allow their educational system to break down and become dysfunctional...

So let’s not respond to China’s surpluses by putting up trade barriers. Rather, let’s do as we did after the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957: raise our own education standards to meet the competition.

 

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May 28, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

The Educated Giant

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/opinion/28kristof.html

Taishan, China

With China’s trade surplus with the United States soaring, the tendency in the U.S. will be to react with tariffs and other barriers. But instead we should take a page from the Chinese book and respond by boosting education.