Editorial: U.S. adults have some catching up to do
Classrooms across Long Island were empty on Thursday. Check our listings of delayed openings, closures and cancellations to see what's in store for Friday. Credit: Daniel Brennan
It turns out our kids are chips off the old block. For years, students in the United States have done worse in tests of basic skills than those in other industrialized nations. Report after report details how the youthful Swiss, Poles, South Koreans, Finns and Japanese are beating us. But according to results released last week, American adults also fared poorly on a global test of math, reading and problem-solving using technology. Researchers tested about 166,000 people ages 16 to 65 from more than 20 countries and subnational regions. The U.S. contingent scored near the bottom.
In the northern European countries that fared well, experts noted that more than 60 percent of adults took part in either job training or continuing education. Maybe it's time we stopped telling the kids to hit the books, and started leading by example.
