"Vernon North" <verno@oyama.bc.ca> wrote in message 
news:MPG.1d2bb231b36701aa98a1d8@shawnews.vc.shawcable.net...

> "American high school students have a poorer mastery of basic math
> concepts than their counterparts in most other leading industrialized
> nations, according to a major international survey released yesterday."

(etc. snipped.)

Doesn't American high school education tend to be more broad than in other 
countries? European countries tend to specialize much earlier. The same goes 
for universities, I believe.

Anyway, the level of American science is number one in the world. So common 
sense tells us that the education system must be doing something right.