There is a war raging all around us. It is a global war. It is a war that the United States cannot afford to lose. No one has died in this war, and no one is likely to. But there are casualties. Their injuries are not physical; they are mental. And the suffering is life-long. I’m not referring to the Global War on Terror or the War on Drugs. I’m talking about the Math War.
While the United States is, militarily, the world’s only superpower, we are, mathematically, merely a second-rate power, and losing ground every year. In the Math War, the superpowers are Singapore, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Belgium. In assessment after assessment, those countries prove that their weapons – in this case, mathematically-competent 4th, 8th, and 12th graders – are more accurate and advanced than our own. Their strategies are more focused. Their national resolve is stronger.