Is it a problem of handing kids calculators and failing to teach them the math concepts behind their magic?  Are we teaching shallow tool use, without building an understanding of how things work?

Our education system is in deep, fundamental, trouble, when a simple thinking skill is so rare that we must bring in fresh talent from overseas.
A NYT article today on H-1 Immigration Visas, talks about the talent of an Indian engineer that “used a rare combination of creativity, analysis, engineering and an understanding of graphics to find a solution that eluded” the rest of his team at Google.

But back in late 2006, maps produced by the service [Google] were taking too long to download and appear on phones. As customers waited for the maps to form, they racked up huge bills from cellphone providers, which at the time were charging for every minute or every byte of data transferred.

Enter Mr. Mavinkurve, who floated an alternative: cut the number of colors in each map section to 20 or 40 from around 256. The user would not see the difference, but the load times would be reduced 20 percent.

Mr. Mavinkurve used a rare combination of creativity, analysis, engineering and an understanding of graphics to find a solution that had eluded the rest of the team, said Mark Crady, a manager in the maps group.

I’m old enough that when I first needed to reduce the size of an image for the web, I had to cut out gradations of color little by little until the image  was as small as possible, with the best presentation.  I knew I was reducing the number of colors because it was a visible part of the process.  Now I just click, “Save as .jpg…small?, medium? Large?” and the computer does the rest.

I don’t know how long people have been able to do the work without understanding how it’s happening, but I’m going to guess about 15 years?  That would mean that most of Google’s young staff could conceivably have been sizing web images without understanding how it happens.  However, I do feel like I’m bending over backwards to give them the benefit of the doubt.  They are supposed to be an incredibly bright bunch of young people.  So what has happened, that within a group of our best and brightest, applying a function principle across platforms is a rare bit of creative thinking?

I’m also curious how many Montessori educated people were on that maps team.  My thesis would be that Montessori education promotes a deeper understanding of ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ than traditional education, and that most of the maps team was educated traditionally.  Well, Google, am I right?