fred tells it like it is and i'm sure some won't like what they read;

by Fred Reed for the Saker blog

A staple response of nationalistic commenters on the web, when told that China is advancing rapidly in technology, is a truculent, “If the Chinese are so damn smart, why do they send their students to American universities? Huh?”

The answer may surprise. Appended below is an email from an internet friend with a career in math and engineering:

“Fred,

“….My oldest daughter, being half Asian, has joined many Asian circles of friends at her university.  When one of the groups was talking about why Chinese come to (state), to study, one of the male students said “Not the best of the Chinese students come to America.  I came here because I couldn’t get into a good college at home.  It’s much easier to get into an American college. ”

The acceptance rate at my daughter’s university’s college of Science and Engineering is 7%.  This student felt that it was very easy to get into.

My daughter’s best friends are now mostly foreign Asians who come here to study.  Her American friends are almost all lost and adrift.   Her high school has been consistently ranked in the top 3 in the state, but her former classmates are almost all lost and failing.  Those classmates who got into the U of (state) of CSE are dropping out because of the work load.  I don’t think those analysts at the CIA, Harvard, etc., realize that the nation’s defense depends more on what is happening to America’s young people, rather than defense or economic technology.  When I was in China and visited two schools, I could see that China knows its future depends on these students.

George”

This is not an isolated view. A few years back another friend’s daughter, then teaching petroleum geology at (I think) Rice, told him that her Nigerian students were better prepared mathematically than the American.

This, boys and girls, is the American system in flower. Degeneration is now the norm. A cursory Google search produces countless examples of math being dumbed down as being racist, grammar being abandoned for the same reason, advanced placement courses being eliminated or enstupidated for the same reason, and standardized tests and admission requirements in general being eliminated for the same reason. The underlying explanation (I will guess) is the anti-intellectualism in the fundamentally plebeian American character and the realization by the rabble that in a pseudodemocracy they can vote themselves the treasury, government, and culture. Which they have.........read more..........