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January 17, 2008, 04:15 PM ET
Tech Ignorance Keeps Teens From Changing the World
America’s high-school students are confident they can solve the world’s most complex problems, such as climate change and a dwindling supply of fossil fuels. However, more than half of them believe high schools aren’t giving them the science and technology background to take those problems on, according to survey results from the Lemelson-MIT program.
This year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, a survey that indicates Americans’ attitudes toward invention and innovation, shows most high-school studnets (64 percent) believe they are capable of inventing scientific and technological solutions to global issues.
At the same time, 59 percent of the teenage respondents (13 to 18 years old) don’t think they are being adequately prepared in high school for science and technology careers.
That seems to mesh with yesterday’s Joint Information Systems Committee report that students can “google,” but not do research. The younger generation has a level of comfort with technology, but not necessarily an intimate understanding. The Lemelson-MIT study also indicates, apparently, that students are aware of that shortcoming. —Hurley Goodall
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