More Evidence Our Educational System Is Killing Tech

Recently I did a reading at Google and had lunch with one of the guys who helps recruit college kids to Google. Given the general Google mania among investors, users and Valley folks who hear the lore of the free lobster dinners and massage chairs, I would have assumed his job consisted of saying, "Hey, young genius, want to come work at Google?"

Apparently, it's a good deal harder than that. It seems a whole mini-generation of smart would-be engineers read all those business stories about their jobs being outsourced wholesale to India and pursued other careers. Bill Gates weighed in on this in front of congress earlier this year, too, in his argument for more H1-B visas and was asked by a numskull senator if this was really about taking more high-wage jobs from Americans. I was listening to the hearing on NPR, but even over the radio you could almost hear Gates's disdain for the ignorant question. After all, PhD level engineers are hardly equivalent to migrant workers. He calmly replied that Microsoft wasn't trying to hire foreign engineers on the cheap, these were six figure jobs that Microsoft physically couldn't find enough Americans with the requisite education to hire.

That's bad enough for innovation, tech and the Valley and has been a hot button issue for many local CEOs. But in a recent interview with Tom Foremski, entrepreneur Judy Estrin points out a surprising double whammy in the education system's de-valuing of more artistic and creative endeavors via No Child Left Behind. This may seem like a crazy leap, so bear with me.

Tech is a broad category, but as I've argued before so much of consumer Web innovation (and maybe mobile too, with easy to use platforms like the iPhone) isn't really so techy anymore. There's a very strong creative element to it, building on top of a pretty standard hardware and software stack, with increasingly easy-to-design tools. The best "visionaries" of the Web today are people who appreciate design, usability, name, brand and marketing. Marketing in that grassroots sense, not slimy business sense, but still, its marketing. So what happens to the future of the US tech economy if colleges aren't producing enough computer scientists and elementary and highschools aren't training people to think creatively? It's not good.

The clip is below; her point on this is towards the end. (Thanks to Jeff Slobotski for sending me the link!)