Being Canadian has been fun over the past couple of weeks as Vancouver hosted the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics. A popular topic of discussion was the Own the Podium program set up to help our athletes compete. Many people have interpreted "Own the Podium" to mean Canada had to finish with the most medals. Ken Read, former Olympian and one of the original Crazy Canucks, expanded on the real intent of the program in this Globe & Mail opinion piece.Read explains that "from the get-go, it was clearly stated that [the Own the Podium Program] was a stretch goal – an ambitious target intended to galvanize our nation, inspire our athletes, focus our funding and build a foundation of partnership."
He goes on to say "Own The Podium is and must be the rallying point. It gives us the sense of mission, direction, pride, focus, energy, passion and determination to be the best we can be. It has worked brilliantly, building an attitude, a belief that we can compete."
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had an "Own The Podium" program to inspire those of us in higher education.
I believe the opportunity is before us now to have such a program.
Preston Manning, former Reform Party Founder and past leader of the Official Opposition in Ottawa, points out the importance of innovation in an opinion piece of his own. I'll forgive him for neglecting to highlight the vital role higher education can play in building the skills and knowledge in Canadians that make innovation possible - he is a conservative after all ;-)
Manning correctly points out that innovation is needed in many sectors. He could, and should, have gone farther though. Innovation can be more than a requirement. We have an opportunity to use innovation as a concept, or vision, to rally around.
Imagine a program which inspires our students to acquire knowledge and develop skills that promote innovative approaches. A program that sets ambitious targets which galvanize students, staff and faculty and cause all of us to stretch to new heights. It should be easy now - we just experienced it across Canada.
We need an 'OWN THE PODIUM' for lower education too.
ReplyDeleteConsecutive TIMSS studies, mostly recently in 2007, show that Canadian 4th graders and 8th graders (as are those from USA, Britain, Australia) are mediocre and decidedly middle-of-the-pack on the international math & science league tables.
Academic excellence requires a societal/cultural recognition of what it takes to achieve academically, and a focused determination to ingrain notions of hard work and its payoffs in every child.
If Canadians are as hot about academics as they are about ice-hockey, they're going to get to the top of the international academic league tables as they currently are in ice-hockey.
Take South Korea's example. Their young students are not only at the top of the international league table for math & science, but their athletes are also now top in non-traditional sports like speed-skating and figure-skating. What it took for them is primarily a focused determination to excel, to think outside of the box of what-they-can-or-cannot-do-well-in.
To make it easier for Canadian minds to comprehend: just ask ourselves how many thousands of hours of hard work every decent professional ice-hockey player has put in over the years to get to where they are? So if Canadian kids put in probably just half of those hours for academics, there is every reason to expect that our kids will climb to the top ranks of the academic league table in as few as 5 years' time.
Why are these mediocre academic trends in our kids should be alarming? Our North American education system is simply not producing enough good scientists to sustain innovation or the economy. Google and read the following articles:
Bill Gates: Industry needs more foreign scientists, better math/sci education
America Trains Foreign PhDs, Canada Employs Them
U.S. Innovation Hurt By Restrictions On Foreign Grad Students, CU Study Shows
In recognition of these disturbing trends, in Nov 2009, US President Obama kicked off an 'Innovate to Educate' initiative in which he hoped to raise the interests and standards of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in American students, as it is now recognized that the economic future of America is going to depend on this. He said "We’re going to show young people how cool science can be." ' (click on links below for more information).
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/educate-innovate
http://www.rdmag.com/News/Feeds/2009/11/information-tech-partnering-with-the-white-house-on-educate-to-inn/
Obama said: ""Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34111505/ns/politics-white_house/
If we do not instruct and guide our popular culture, but let ourselves be mindlessly carried in-
no-particular direction by popular culture (which may I add, has been largely influenced from south-of-the-border). Let us consider how we can encourage our Canadian society to envision an 'Own the Podium' for our young students, not just in sports, but also academically and in other areas of innovation and endeavor too. Or else, in this century, we probably will not be seeing another 'Canadarm' or be able to follow up with the innovations and inventions that Canadians have been proudly able to boast of in the 20th century.
Ms Yanny Ong.
wow amazing
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