Whoever told us that getting what we want, no matter what the cost, rewards us with profits?
What presumptions did we assume during the Industrial Revolution?
Did someone say the earth has a voracious appetite for our refuse without choking?
Paul Hawkens contradicts our presumptions, assumptions, and earth-born arrogance by recognizing an eternal premise: the earth lives, and we have no right, in the name of profits, to destroy the land.
Hawkens, (read The Ecology of Commerce) taught Ray Anderson that sustaining the earth is consistent with making profits. You can treat your customer with high regard, make decorative carpets with sustainable characteristics, offer free recycling of what you make, while making profits.
Ray Anderson is the founder of Interface, the company that makes those adorable Flor carpet tiles (as well as lots of less whizzy but equally useful flooring and fabric). He was a serious carpet guy, focused on building his company and making great products. Then he read Paul Hawken’s book The Ecology of Commerce. Something clicked: with his company’s global reach and manufacturing footprint, he was in a position to do something very real, very important, in building a sustainable world.
Math, engineering, technology, and science are the subjects necessary for economic growth in the future. The Kauffman Foundation. understands the necessity to train “METS” entrepreneurs for future innovation.
America has been the innovation leader in the world. School Boards, superintendents, and high school principals must recognize the need to train students in “METS” subjects.
Dire statistics include those from a recent U.S. Department of Labor report indicating that 60 percent of jobs in the 21st century economy will require skills that only 20 percent of the workforce currently has—and those skills are largely related to METS subjects.
There are 14,600 local school boards across the United States, each independently addressing one of education’s most critical challenges: how to improve the teaching of mathematics, engineering, technology, and science (METS). Some have led their districts to innovative partnerships and brilliant solutions; others have made disastrous decisions costing their districts thousands of dollars. But none of them has had a central place to go to for resources and support.
Beginning in 2007, a new partnership between the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was created to address this gaping need. The AAAS/NSBA Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Project marks the first time a national science organization has reached out proactively to local school boards, and the first time that NSBA has directly addressed its constituents’ needs with respect to METS subjects. The project’s goal is to determine what school boards want and need to know about METS education and to address those needs head-on.
