U.S. needs another spark like Sputnik

Few people could imagine that 50 years later recreational joggers would be tracking their distance and speed using watches that connect with satellites. They didn't foresee cell phones that use satellites to help average people broadcast photos and video from a military crackdown in Myanmar, or Google Earth, which allows just about anyone to sit in the comfort of their homes and examine detailed images of any part of the planet. They didn't imagine satellite television and radio, or even the technology allowing instant images of news events.

And those are just the commercial applications. Science uses satellites to monitor the weather and keep tabs on environmental changes. The military uses them for surveillance. The list goes on.

And, frankly, we have Sputnik to thank for all of that. If the United States had been the first nation to launch a satellite, we wouldn't have been spurred by the threat of our enemies. We might not have reached the moon 12 years later.

In the days following Sputnik, college and university spokesmen met at the American Council on Education in Washington to talk about the need to get serious about education. That sense of urgency paid off mightily in the years that followed.

The threats are different today, spurred by intense competition for jobs. The old public-school model isn't up to the challenge. If we remain limited by the times in which we live, we may not see this before it's too late.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com