Sorry kids your in trouble

Free trade is when governments do not restrict imports or exports from other countries.  Free trade is important to the whole world, our country is a very big consumer of imported goods. I feel our country needs to look at the big picture of how we can capitalize from this. We keep thinking that all of these other countries are taking our work, but this is just how the world works and as a country we must change with it. The fact is why some businesses would pay much more for low skilled workers. The real change that I see with free trade is the shock that people are still in over it. In the world of free trade we need to start the movement of trying to tap into these huge new markets of China, India and so on. The fact is that we have so many new niches to get into in almost every field imaginable. We need to go back to our roots as a country of being the world’s most innovative country. The truth is if your job is a fungible job you should look to gain new skills so that if your job becomes taken over by technology or lower cost labor force, you can thrive in the new job opportunities given by the free trade market.

 The new middle class is being taken over by people that have been able to use these skills. First being able to be a manger that can bring out the best in their team, this skill makes you much harder to replace. Another attribute is having good people skills, it can make all the difference when dealing with your customers and team members. The next thing is having collaborative skills. This makes work horizontal with others much easier for everyone involved. The overall theme of the new middle class is just being great at adapting, and having a versatile set of skills so that you are never left behind. The new middle class is able to see the true value of mathematics, this class sees the ever changing world and that you will need to have this skill to move through life. After reading chapter six of “The World Is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman, I can see why the math requirement in college is math 1050 now. The simple fact is we might not see that this skill is needed for our degree, but how can you know it will be needed for your job ten years from now. I personally like math, but I would not say it would be in the field I want to go in to. That being said I do know that almost all jobs will change throughout the time we are in them, so I do see the merit in mathematics.

    CQ + PQ > IQ is a formula that states that CQ-curiosity quotient plus PQ-passion quotient are greater that IQ-intelligence. This equation is very important it shows passion and curiosity outweighs the benefits of intelligence. I found this formula to be spot on, I personally want to become a dentist, and I have talked to a lot of dentists about what skills I should try to work on. The same answer was given by everyone “Intelligence can only get you so far, but passion and hard work really make the difference.” My personal view on passion and curiosity is that you can do anything with those two things. Being intelligent is great, but you have to have passion in something to really want to do it. I personally feel in college, passion and curiosity have helped me to achieve my goals I have set for myself. I also have taken class based on if the professor is well liked from prior students. I don’t mind taking hard classes as long as the professor can make the classes more than a vague outline that is hard to interpret. And so far I have had all professors using input from sites like http www.ratemyprofessors.com.

I just wanted to go in to chapter 8 vaguely, I found a point I would like to talk about. Chapter 8 the education gap talked about how the U.S has fallen behind in advance math and science. To me, I found this to be a lack of interest from students and a lack of good attractive material. I feel that our k-12 has not changed some of its core work for like 50 years. The biggest change needs to be met in math, there are so many different ways to teach this, but we chose to use the same style. Why not have two different classes with different styles, that way every person learns differently. Using the same books year after year just means the text you are using is out of date. We could even use computers and go to websites like www.khanacademy.org. This shows you so much more than any class I have ever been to for math.