It is easy to be depressed about the state of the world. The European economy is threatening to implode, dragging the rest of the world into a deep recession. The Iranians say they have no plans for developing a nuclear weapon, but no one believes them. The American people are convinced that the country's best days are behind her.  And, if the global warming experts are to be believed, we are about to enter a frightening period of hurricanes, tsunamis and drought. Depressing indeed.

But there is another side to the story. Earth's greatest natural resource is not oil or gas or gold or platinum. Earth's greatest natural resource is the brainpower of the nearly seven billion people who inhabit the planet. The solution to every problem we face rests inside the mind of a brilliant, inventive soul somewhere in this world.

What's exciting, revolutionary in fact, is that vastly more people than ever before now have the chance to put their brainpower to work.

In India, Pakistan, Brazil, Qatar, Russia, China and a hundred other countries, young people have real hope for a better future. Hundreds of millions of people who would never have had a chance for an education even a generation ago, now believe they can put their intellect to work to improve not only their own lives but the future of their countries as well.  The consequence of this explosion of opportunity can only be imagined.  Medicines will be invented that will prevent or cure some of our most threatening diseases.  Solutions to complex environmental problems will be uncovered.  Economies will grow and, as they do, violence will recede. No, the world won't be perfect. Difficult problems will persist. But, because more people will be participating in the pursuit of knowledge, the world will be far better than most people expect.

 

The small Baptist college that television preacher Jerry Falwell founded here in 1971 has capitalized on the online education boom to become an evangelical mega-university with global reach. According to this Washington Post article, In the almost six years since Falwell’s death, Liberty University has doubled its student head count — twice.

According to this USA Today story, more than half of 2012 high school graduates who took a college entrance exam did not have all of the skills they will need to succeed in college, or a career, a pair of recent reports conclude. Findings released Monday by the non-profit College Board show that 57% of 2012 graduating seniors who took the SAT, which it owns, earned a combined score below what it says is necessary to show that students can earn a B-minus or better in the first year at a four-year college.

A report released last month by the Iowa City-based ACT found that at least 60% of 2012 high school graduates who took its test are similarly at risk of not succeeding in college.

A generation who grew up playing Xbox games instead of rebuilding carburetors doesn't seem to have the fascination with auto repair as earlier generations who grew up as shade-tree mechanics. "We're finding we're going to run short of technicians in the very near future," says Rich Orbain, manager for General Motors' Service Technical College in this article from USA Today.

This Washington Post piece takes a look at some of the trends in wages and finds that high school dropouts' earnings have fallen by 66% since 1969.

The University of Virginia will join a prestigious online consortium aimed at offering free online courses to the masses, according to this Washington Post article.