>Just when I was getting ready to unbend - I find this article. Its says America is 17th in the world in software development skills - maybe we need something more rudimentary than the usual "syntax of the brand" conferences:
>
>http://news.com.com/U.S.%20slips%20lower%20in%20coding%20contest/2100-1022_3-5659116.html?tag=cnetfd.buzz

It might be the economics involved. Not too many of our youngsters are going into Computer Science. Other countries pay programmers less so goodbye jobs. No job = no interest.

Go back thirty-five years to the electronics hardware industry. Look at that picture today. You have to go to China if you want to work in that career field. Other careers have left our shores – almost all manufacturing is gone. Textiles, etc are all but gone. Furniture manufacturing is leaving as is evident by companies like Thomasville having its furniture made in China.

I worked as an electronics engineer on projects like the Apollo and LEM, F-111 Radar and many others. NASA and DOD have changed and so did the aerospace industry. We put men on the moon but we are no longer needed.

Yes, a few exceptions exist for the career field’s mention above. But you do not see a high demand for such careers. Therefore, there are no long lines of students trying to go into such fields.

My objective is to survive. It is getting harder by the day. Our son is a grammar school teacher in a private school and our daughter is about to graduate from UCLA with a degree in English. Both children are very computer literate and avoided technology as we had long talks on the subject. Beware of the technology god!

Is it wise to be a teacher? Who knows! I can see that being outsourced to India or China and a television set replaces the teacher in the classroom. At least they do not have to outsource the students. Yet! :)

Perhaps we will end up like Ireland after 1845. We will watch our young sail off around the world in the hope to survive and find opportunity elsewhere.