It is now more apparent that the future will now foresee China and India as competitors for the next superpower. As America now must either pass on the torch or perhaps seize the blade. Even though this decision is to be handed down to us, we are currently fighting a war, between how smart we are.

The Socialist and the Social Scene

The average American High School student is subjected towards a competitive approach when it comes to his or her education. He or she gets into an honors class, takes up a sport, performs a play, plays a song, within all this is competition. In America we determine who is the best and who is not. Also, many factors are put in, who can play well, who knows more people, who has the money and the mind to invest their knowledge. Plus we go by the idea that we love the friendly competition, known to break the spirits and hopes for others at an emotional level. And when we lose we find things against the winner, just so we can feel a sense of pride that we have tried. It almost makes us cry. However if we look at China and India, we see a different kind of competition. Something along the lines of ordered. While we do have similarities when it comes to the actual competing, how we compete is different. In India and China, they are asked to figure equations within seconds and almost never with a calculator, they are given a chart at times. The idea of ordered competition relies on more on mental thought than physical, emotional, and social. Social class is not apparent within any of these countries, not even in India, the largest democracy. China's communist policy is still apparent within its country. India, while diverse, is divided, with every state and territory with its own characteristics and people, almost like a cafeteria clique. Within the two countries competition is just as important there as it is in the USA.

You Take The High Road

The motivation for an American High School student is to do well, get into college, find a job. The motivation for a person in China or India is quite literally, leave the country. It is not hard to understand who is more motivated to do something. The Chinese encourage education with its 9-year rule, meaning at least 9 years of education MUST be taken in order to have some sort of social status within the mainland. Also stating that respect to teachers is the most important. From the beginning the Chinese push education, and when you have been in a Communist govt for so long, conformity is your only choice. In India, education is placed very high, in a country still in development, education is pushed for all no matter what caste, religion, or region. Even the poorest child may spend Rs. 10-30 at an internet cafe, print out the textbook chapters, and continue on his or her way. The materials given to both countries aid in driving the children to seek education as a high priority. This is not what some might say "adequate", but understanding the current conditions and the confidence many children have to make it in the world pretty much fills the kids need to learn.

True or False?

Is America headed downhill once Generation Y takes over? The answer, maybe, we need to realize there is, in fact, a difference between academic smart and street smart. However, problem solving for these countries would become a lot easier. America is known to set the standard, of course, times change, and as these super powers rise, America is going to have to struggle in order to be on par with them. The rise of these superpowers may either be welcomed in open arms or a threat to the country. But changes can be made, like the No Child left behind act. Punishing schools for not do great on standardized tests, and those that do raise the scores once more, if they reach unreachable levels then they fail even at the highest potential. It was a plan that was designed so that all schools can fail at some point. Aggressiveness to a teenager always will yield the same result, a return of aggression, be it direct or passive. Something America should not raise, because at the same time, right across the world, a kid with a dream and an imagination similar to the American teenager is constantly willing to reach that dream of theirs.