Thanks for this. I've read three different summaries of this same OECD report this morning!
I've just come back from a dogwalk and still dwelling on what I wrote after sending you my previous posting. What was occurring to me is that the reason for a number of the arguments we have is that our societies are much more different than we might imagine -- or at least I might imagine anyway. Time and again, I describe things going on here and I get the impression from some of your slightly nonchalant responses sometimes that you might be thinking that I am exaggerating. I also get the impression that you live in a much more laid back -- indeed much happier and less stressed -- society than here. Hitherto, I've regarded the difference as a personality one. However, during the dogwalk -- and I hope you don't think I'm being patronising here -- I think our society is more complex than yours because we have so many layers of history. Please don't think I'm trying to show off -- but consider. We were building quite complex stone buildings at the tip of Scotland and in the south of England before the pyramids were built. By 1,000BC we had probably the most complex bronze technology in the world (apart from China's), using tin from Cornwall and copper from north Wales, with, correspondingly, a very advanced mining technology (scores of tin mines stretching for miles under the sea bed in Cornwall and over 50 miles of recently discovered tunnels in north Wales from that date -- made with bone and stone tools), and with significant manufacturing areas somewhere in between (not yet discovered) to actually make the bronzes (of different blends for different purposes) and then trading the products over thousands of miles from the Baltic through to the Mediterranean. Then we've been invaded by the Romans, and the Saxons, and the Vikings and Danes, and the Normans with their advanced feudal system followed by the landowning classes. We were at the back-end of the Mediterranean Renaissance but one of the first into long-distance trading with Asia and big trading companies, the first into the Western Scientific Enlightenment and then the Industrial Revolution, and the first into the computer revolution. We are the third/fourth largest exporting country in the world -- not of products (we're mined out of almost everything we ever had by way of resources), but of a variety of services. In short, we probably have the most mature job and social structure of anywhere in the world. We live by our wits. We may not have the sheer mass, momentum or technological products that the Americans have got but I think we lead the world in the acquisition of problems, strains and stresses from all this historical/technological development. We're a well-rotted compost heap, showing extremes of anything that can be discussed in terms of job structure and society. In addition, we're also geographically small enough to have started the most comprehensive welfare, educational, social services, health and transport services in the world and now we're the furthest advanced in showing that they're breaking down -- that the welfare society is absolutely cram full of problems and we're showing them all in abundance, so much so that even a Labour government is trying to privatise as much as it can get away with (albeit in more cunning ways that Thatcher did). The only other country which has had such a complex history as ours, running through the whole gamut of every type of economic and technological development is China. I cannot think of any other with such a varied experience and with so many historical residues which are still fermenting away.
I'm very probably over-egging the pudding (once again without wishing to be patronising in any way at all) but, in comparison, Canada's (and America's) social, economic, historical, cultural problems are somewhat simpler than ours. I'm not suggesting in any way that you are personally naive, but I think that your problems can be stated (and solved) in much more simplistic terms than could be done here. However, I believe that many of the trends and problems here in England that I am writing about will come to you, too, in due course -- because we are much further on in what I believe to be the decline of the industrial revolution.
Keith
At 10:51 17/09/2003 -0400, you wrote:
Keith et al, the following may be of interest. It seems that Canadian kids, one of whom is pictured hitting the books, are not doing to badly despite spending cuts and larger class sizes.
Ed Weick
C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y :
Canadians score top marks in math, science, reading
Last Updated Tue Sep 16 22:34:29 2003
PARIS-- Despite a significant drop in education spending, Canada's teenagers scored some of the highest marks in math, science and reading among Western nations, according to a new international study.
Canada also had the highest number of students attaining post-secondary education, according to the 500-page international survey put out by the international think tank the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).
- INDEPTH: Education
The study, called "Education at a Glance," compared national education costs, staffing and test results of 30 countries within the OECD.
Among 15 year-olds, Canada joined Japan, Korea, New Zealand, The Netherlands and Finland with the highest scores in math, while Japan and Korea got top marks for both math and science.
Canada ranked second in reading behind Finland. Alberta was the top province, followed by Quebec. (New Brunswick was rated the worst but still at the OECD average.)
Portugal, Luxembourg and Mexico rated the poorest in reading skills.
Despite Canada's high marks in test results, the country spends less than the OECD average on primary and secondary education, a significant drop in the last five years.
Canada was also among the countries with the largest class sizes, along with Japan, Korea and Mexico (a teacher-to-student ratio of 80 persons per 1,000 students compared to 119 persons per 1,000 students of France, Hungary, Iceland and Italy.)
Canada's increase in students receiving post-secondary education, a 10 per cent jump in the past 12 years, was credited to the influx of women students (a 23 per cent higher number than 12 years ago).
The study also found that Canada ranks second in post-secondary education spending.
Among Canadian teenagers, females performed significantly better than males in reading literacy (30 per cent) and slightly better in science (two per cent).
Males did better in math (10 per cent).
These gender variations were similar among all the countries studied.
The numbers were based on 2001 statistics and studies from 1995 to 2001.
Written by CBC News Online staff
Copyright © 2003 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
