- Daily Photo: Obama Jokes Around at G-20
- Blackwater gets replaced in Iraq
- Daily Photo: U.S. Marines Look Out for Taliban in Afghanistan
- Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
- Obama Administration Sudan Envoy Headed to Region
- Daily Photo: Potential Flashpoint in Iraq
- Clinton Says New Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Depends on Diplomacy
- Exclusive: Three Israeli Airstrikes Against Sudan
- Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
- Daily Photo: Navy Submarine Trains in the Arctic
- Alarm Over North Korea Missile Prep
- Anti-Terror Stimulus? US Offers Rewards for Top Terrorists
- Daily Photo: Pakistani Women in Refugee Camp
- Condoleezza Rice Appears on "The Tonight Show"
- Diplomat and Aid Group Sound the Alarm on Darfur Camp Situation
- auto industry rescue
- Ballotwatch
- Biden, Joe
- Bush, George W.
- Clinton, Bill
- Clinton, Hillary
- Dodd, Chris
- Edwards, John
- Giuliani, Rudy
- Gravel, Mike
- Huckabee, Mike
- Hunter, Duncan
- Inauguration
- Iraq
- Kucinich, Dennis
- McCain, John
- Obama, Barack
- Palin, Sarah
- Paul, Ron
- Romney, Mitt
- Tancredo, Tom
- Thompson, Fred
- Veepstakes
- Vote 2008: Democrats
- Vote 2008: Republicans
- Washington
- White House
« Previous | Main | Next »
Making Math Sexy
Email
ShareMay 31, 2007 9:26 PM
ABC News' Kate Snow and Eloise Harper report:
Speaking to CEOs and senior officers of Silicon Valley high-tech companies today, Senator Hillary Clinton had a unique suggestion.
Why not create a reality TV show focused on brains instead of beauty?
As she unveiled an agenda meant to promote innovation and research in high-tech high-wage industries, Clinton bemoaned the fact that young students don’t want to focus on geeky subjects like math and science.
"We’ve got all these reality shows about singing and modeling and hairstyling," Clinton said to laughter.
"Let’s do some reality shows about innovation. And let’s have some cash prizes out there to try to get young people to start thinking that way. I’ve long said if we could have some have some really good programming about math students and engineers that would get people excited and, you know, they could walk around in great looking clothes and be really attractive, you know, more people (would want to enter those fields)."
Later she said she was only "half kidding" about using popular culture to shape a new generation of science and math whiz-kids.
Clinton cited the enormously popular CSI television series as a perfect example of entertainment driving real life choices.
"We have so many kids who now want to go into forensics because they’ve seen it on TV. Please!" she implored the crowd, "think about some series that would give real sex appeal to STEM (science, technology, education and mathematics) and let’s get it done!"
The senator also suggested that public boarding schools might be part of the solution for pushing more kids to careers in high-tech fields.
She said schools today look very similar to what they looked like when she was a child. They have not re-made themselves for the 21st century, she suggested.
"We are still using an agricultural model for the school year and an industrial model for the schools," Clinton said.
"We’re just not thinking about how to unleash the creativity and ingenuity of kids."
May 31, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Post a comment
