The Pulitzer Prize Winning Foreign Affairs Columnist for The New York Times Asks a Rhetorical Question. (September 16, 2005)

    Thomas Friedman has been The New York Times foreign affairs columnist for the past decade.

This past week he's been in Singapore, that city state of four-million population, and he closes today's column with:

Why am I writing about this? Because math and science are the keys to innovation and power in today's world, and American parents had better understand that the people who are eating their kids' lunch in math are not resting on their laurels.

And to keep the record straight Mr Friedman received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975 and a Master in Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford in 1978. He's no one-eyed barracker for maths and science, but he informs his readers, "Singapore is obsessed with nurturing every ounce of talent of every single citizen. That is why, although its fourth and eighth graders already score at the top of the Times' international math and science tests, Singapore has been introducing more innovations into schools... it's not enough to just stay ahead of its neighbors. It has to stay ahead of everyone - including us...
    "Message to America: They are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top."

Mr Friedman goes on to discuss the HeyMaths online tutorial platform at length but it is by no means the only such system available. For example the Australian Institute of Mathematics provides the Mathsmagic Computer Tutor which is similar and can work with students from grades 3-12, tutors English as well as maths, and costs $50 per week per family or $5,500 all up.

Unfortunately the cost of Mathsmagic precludes many primary and secondary students who would benefit greatly from the use of the system especially considering the paucity of properly trained and dedicated teachers in the states' school systems.

If Thomas Friedman has a point in warning the United States citizenry to look over its shoulder it's no less appropriate for Australians.