Cognito, ergo sum

Shanghai is very beautiful after 20 days plum-rains. I love the afternoon tea break, have a cup of jasmine tea, sip its aroma, ponder on the day or just look at the sky view outside my office---you really don't have to do anything. That is the moment to be "being".

Take a breath, and be "being" here.

One world. Many worlds.

Scene 1:

[Shanghai, a workplace lunch, a group of summer interns in a leading local company]

Xiaoming=a Tsinghua student, Dagang=a Peking U student

Xiaoming: Hey so what do you think of the first year in Beida?
Dagang: Ahh! It is tough! Though I got the 1st prize in international Olympia Math Competition, I still have to study till midnight all the time to do my 1st year math homework. And it is so hard to get a seat in the libraries, even though I get up at 5:30 am every day, no seats left! I heard Tsinghua has more studying spaces for students, ohh, I envy you....

[New York, workplace lunch, a group of summer interns in a Forbes 100 Co. ]
Jim=a UPenn student, Danis=a Harvard student
Jim: Hey so how is your first year in Harvard?
Danis: Ahh! Harvard is not for us! It is for older guys! You know you have to live in single sex dorms, and the best sports clubs sometimes are not open for freshmen! So hard to get girls....

Scene 2:

"My mom yelled at me again for my stubborn insistence on staying in Astrophysics. She wanted me to work as a programmer for a bank. I don't know what I am supposed to do now... As an Astrophysicist, it is really hard to make lots of money to attract girls... " [This is the theme of 99% of the posts on a Physics Ph.D online forum in China. ]

"I rejected the VC because I am very confident in the profitability of my idea. I wouldn't let go of my deserved share. I have planned to leave academia to run my own business after I finish the NASA Chandra project." [Quote from an audience, an Astrophysicist to be, at an East-cost VC competition. ]

Scene 3:

I have to take special classes to improve my English this summer, or my parents won't buy me the Coach purse for my bday". --- A 20 y/o Shanghai girl.

I do "Coachsurfing". It is cool. I plan to use 6 to 8 weeks to explore China's west, then Burma, India, Turkey, Spain, Morocco... I am expecting to end my vacation on the beach of Morocco!"---A 20 y/o chicago boy.

A different future?

Why education quality matters to the business community?---A report by AmCham said that "None of the top 10 jobs that will exist in 2010 exist today, and these jobs will employ technology that hasn't been invented to solve problems we haven't yet imagined." So, as innovation changes the necessary workplace knowledge and skills, businesses need to find employees who are qualified for 21st century jobs. The idea is widely endorsed by companies such as IBM, GlaxoSmithKine, Marriott Int'l, Oracle, State Farm Insurance, etc. with their actions to improve education in the US. The same report is also frequently cited by think tanks and consulting firms to make strategic long-term decisions for their clients.

However when the same group of economists start to talk about "the 21st century economy" of China or India, they will have another tune: "a lack of formal education doesn't constrain the ability of the developing world's workforce to sustainably improve productivity for the foreseeable future." The urgent problem is to solve the problem--the looming shortage of "offshore service talents", to learn how to "play in the global arena", etc.. My feeling is that long-term forecast for these countries are not seeing beyond "long" enough---who knows whether the 25 billion (maybe 30bn) of people would be "offshore" forever?

China makes everything. Who is making China?

It is almost the NO. 1 question I asked myself very often recently. And I believe the answer lays in education. Human capital accumulation and technology advancement all depends on education (even R&D units in industries are functioned by school-produced researchers).

In terms of import and export, China is manufacturing everything the world is consuming in daily life, from socks and shoes to computers and cars (well, I put it here as an aspiration for the next 10 years). But, from entrepreneurs who come up with ideas to incubate new market and engine the growth, to all types of workforce supporting the economy, what factors are producing them?

Labor economists have done intensive work, tried to capture the best method to quantify the measurement of ability, skills, the add-on effects of education, and value of experiences. We all would not deny that all human are born equal. In the scale of a nation, Chinese babies are not doing better than babies in any other countries in terms of genetic IQs. So, it is those add-ons that matters how the economy will develop. Now, education. But what is education? How much comes from schools, how much from parental influences (family education), how much the community (cultural factors?)?

I have done courses in development econ, labor econ, sociology and educational philosophy. Still no idea where to start the huge project to answer: Who is making China?

I will try to narrow down my thoughts and try to formulate at least an outline to exhibit the facts in a structured way.

More Thoughts to Come

Organizational failure or born to fail in nature? The question is always in my mind when I read about school system reforms, or, more general, that of education. Economists are not giving effective enough solutions, neither do professional practitioners. Then how about any form of R&D, which has been fueling sustainable growth of all other sectors facing same transitional challenges? Is educational R&D, integrating IT developments, the way leading to a better future? Does the key, how to conduct Ed R&D, lay in our head or some external factors?

Being lucky enough, being a Ph. D student in Economics and Education, (though, coincidentally, "failing" too), I can explore potential answers from within economic researches, which are imperial in social science realms nowadays; I also got many precious exposures to strategic smart heads who share the same concerns over education. No need to brag at all, it matters significantly about the future of mankind.