By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor
The alarming shortage of engineers throughout the U.S. has spurred
numerous proposals on teacher training, curriculum and special programs,
all geared toward boosting the sagging interest of American schoolchildren
in science and mathematics.
But one of the most important factors in shaping the interest of children
in science and maththe attitudes of their parentsis rarely mentioned,
according to Mark H. Karwan, and they play a large and sometimes detrimental
role.
"In general, parents are no help with this," said Karwan, an industrial
engineer and dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
"All too often, I hear them say, 'Well it's okay if little John or Jane
doesn't do well in math, I was no good at it either.' That is a terrible
thing for parents to say."
Karwan is a member of the Council on Competitiveness and the Engineering
Deans Council of the American Society of Engineering Education.
"Parents can't dictate what fields their children should be interested
in," he stressed, "but if at too early an age a child is allowed to
dismiss math and not to consider it important, then that child is missing
out on the opportunity to go into a whole host of some of the most rewarding
and lucrative careers in the world."
Only 5.4 percent of the bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States
are in engineering, compared to Russia and Japan, for example, where
the figure is nearly 20 percent. The global average is 13.8 percent.
This shortfall in homegrown engineersas well as in Americans trained
in computer programming and other fields requiring a foundation in mathematicshas
major implications for the nation's ability to lead in innovation. To
compensate for it, Congress in recent years has granted special visas
annually to more than 100,000 foreign workers in these fields that allow
them to work in the United States.
"Some of the same people who deplore the fact that the government
is allowing these foreign workers to take jobs here in the U.S. don't
realize that their own attitudes toward science and math partly could
be responsible," Karwan noted.
But the special visa program will have to continue, he added, unless
American parents start to change the attitudes they have toward math.
And that change has to start early in a child's life.
Karwan said that national studies show that up until the fourth grade,
American students can keep pace in math with those in the rest of the
industrialized world, but proficiency starts to decline between the
fourth and eighth grades, and from there it drops further.
"Because science and engineering are such demanding fields to study
in college, students must do at least fairly well in these subjects
during high school if they want to even consider pursuing them later
on," said Karwan.
He added that if by the time a child gets to the eighth grade he or
she has decided that math is a "drag" and is earning poor grades in
the subject, that child has pretty much eliminated the possibility of
ever becoming a scientist or engineer.
"It's not that every kid should grow up wanting to be an engineer,"
said Karwan, "but give your kid a chance. There should be equal opportunities
for all our children. They should all have equal opportunities to have
rewarding, well-paying careers eventually, and many of these happen
to require success in math."
What should parents do to get their kids interested in math?
Karwan said they might actively begin encouraging their children to
practice math, in much the same way many already encourage their children
to practice musical instruments.
"How many kids are encouraged to start playing an instrument in the
fourth grade?" he asked. "It's because the parents actively encourage
it, often despite resistance from their child."
Karwan noted that while some children do end up dropping out of band
or orchestra, many persevere, which is why there are so many excellent
high-school musical groups.
Parents also need to take an active interest in their children's math
homework and review it with them, not as drudgery, Karwan said, but
as something in which they are genuinely interested.
"Children need to be encouraged to work at math," said Karwan. "Once
they begin to do well in it, they may start to like it and then they
will have more career opportunities open to them."