"America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."

Pretty dismal assessment, right? Well, that's the take-away from HBO's brand-new series The Newsroom, where Jeff Bridges's curmudgeonly character has a breakdown during a panel at Northwestern University, and says precisely that (complete with a number of expletives, so be forewarned). Take it away, Jeff:

Some pretty compelling, sobering facts there. What happened? Or more to the point, how can we get back on track? I'm certainly not an expert in the educational realm...not a teacher, not a policy wonk, not an administrator. My only claim is as a spelling coach over the past year. But this concerns me. And not because of some "rah-rah-we're-number-1" sentiment.

Well, okay...maybe a little bit. Who wouldn't want to be #1? Especially since we have been there before. I remember back in the early 1990s, when evidence was beginning to mount that American children and teenagers were starting to slip in academic performance, beginning to be outdone, primarily by Asians. Since that time, at least one source indicates that much of eastern Asia and Europe has passed us by now.

But more important than a chest-thumping sentiment is this fact...one that has always been true, but which grows truer and more urgent each day: We need to be as well-educated as possible in subjects that will help us address the challenges that we face every day. And a country that has been as blessed with natural resources, a relatively intelligent population, and a history of ambition and industry as ours should be regularly contributing a lion's share of well-educated, well-prepared children, teenagers, and adults to address these challenges.

I'm sure there are more well-researched, more inspiring words to read than this platitude, but there's my sentiment.

"y = mx + b" and teaching

I've been trying to brush up on some algebra from years past. It's amazing, the little things you forget when you don't use them on a daily basis. For example, the equation to determine the slope of a line? I remembered y = mx + b, but that doesn't necessarily help, especially if you don't know what in the world b is. (The y-intercept...where a line crosses the y axis.) Suddenly, upon hearing "rise over run," it all came back. It would be amusing to be a tutor for algebra and not know basics like this. Then again, who knows? Students might actually benefit from having to explain things to me. Teaching a topic really requires that you know exactly what you're talking about.