Issues > July/August 2004 (#103) > Matters of Scale: Brain Drain

Matters of Scale: Brain Drain

by World Watch Magazine

Education, as the founding fathers knew, is critical to maintaining a democracy of informed voters. Yet funding for universal public education is handled piecemeal, state-by-state across the country, with disturbing results. As the New York Times reported recently, Oregon is in such financial straits some schools have been forced to trim off a month or more of school time. The numbers below give some idea of the outcome of our lackadaisical attitude towards teaching our children.

Reprinted with permission from World Watch Magazine, July/August 2004.

Age at which Mozart composed his first symphony

 

  

9 years

 

Cumulative time the average American will have spent watching TV, by the age of 65

 

  

9 years

 

Percentage of Americans who can name three Supreme Court Justices

 

  

17

 

Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges

 

  

59

 

Hours per year the average American youth spends in school

 

  

900

 

Hours per year the average American youth watches TV

 

  

1,500

 

Number of people in the world who had a conventional telephone line in 2002

 

  

1.10 billion

 

Number who had a cell phone by then

 

  

1.14 billion

 

Percentage of his or her “media time” spent on TV or radio by the average American, age 12 to 64

 

  

77

 

Percentage of his media time spent on TV or radio by the average American boy, age 12 to 17

 

  

62

 
Percentage of his or her media time the average American (age 12 to 64) spends on electronic media (TV, radio, Internet, and video games)   93
Percentage he or she spends on print media (newspapers and magazines)   7

•         •         •         •

 

Reprinted from World Watch Magazine, July/August 2004

SOURCES: Time watching TV: A.C. Nielson Co.; Percentages of time spent on various media: Knowledge Networks/SRI Multi-Media Mentor, 2003; Hours in school vs. watching TV: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Conventional vs. cell phone access: Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2004.

 

Worldwatch is an independent research organization that works for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society. For more information, visit them on the web at www.worldwatch.org.

For Your Community | posted June 29, 2004