Today's Education: Shaping the Inventors of the Future

Erin Martin

Professor Jessica Anderson

English 202

1 May 2013

Today’s Education: Shaping the Inventors of the Future

It seems that today’s education system, and the increasing importance it is placing on math and science, could be changing how the inventors of tomorrow think. Over the past ten years, many new and unique inventions have entered in to the market place, some artistic, some mechanical, but the noticeable trend is that young inventors seem to be leading the way in the latter.

Take 19-year-old Boyan Slat, for instance. Slat is the creator of what he calls an “Ocean Cleanup Array.” His device once put to use, could potentially rid the oceans of over 7 million tons of plastic waste. It takes a very technically minded individual to come up with a solution to this particular problem. Slat noticed that a major issue in the preventive care of our oceans was that there isn’t any imagery of these ‘garbage patches.’ His device will address that problem by placing them in a way that the garbage collects around the booms. This will make it easier to visualize the garbage patches and in turn will make the patches easier to clean.

One might wonder what would cause a 19-year-old to be thinking about things such as environmental science when the vast majority of other kids of that age are concerned with baseball, the prom, or college applications. The first indication comes from “Why Math and Science Means More Jobs.” It has become apparent over the past several years that the United States is starting to fall behind in the scientific disciplines. As author Mortimer Zuckerman states, “Our future depends on the strength of our scientific spine.” There is increasing pressure on our government to strengthen our schools math, technology, engineering, and science classes, starting as early as in the early-childhood education years. This means, from an early age, children will be taught that in order to be successful it will be crucial to concentrate on these...