America's Work Ethic/Education: Quality vs. Quantity

In an interesting article, The Economist compares the time spent at work and in primary and secondary education in the U.S. to the time spent on the same activities in other nations.
While American adults do tend to have less vacation time and longer work weeks than adults in many other western nations, the young in America spend considerably less time in formal education than those in other nations. Given the declining scores of American students compared to many Asian and European nations, The Economist concludes that the obvious causal variable for this apparent decline is the comparative quantity of time spent in formal education.
This conclusion, however, is shaky at best. Is it really that the quantity of time spent by America's young people in formal education is too short, or could there be an issue with the quality of that time? We will not even go into the statistical errors that could account for the differences in the comparative scores on the national level such as the selective testing and vocational apportionment practiced in many of the nations in the comparison. America still produces many of the best and brightest in every industry through it's current system with its short quantity of time devoted to formal education--just as it has for the last two centuries. Other factors such as cultural complacency, lack of parental involvement, the promotion of self-indulgence, and the lack of inspirational role models are just as valid and probably more likely variables in the decline of the quality of the American education experience than the quantity of time spent in formal education.

Posted by Caleb