I’ve noticed that a reassuring phrase that’s going around lately is “American exceptionalism.” At a time when 65% of Americans tell pollsters that this country is on the decline, and more than that believe that we are headed in the wrong direction, one hope is that the U.S. can be exceptional in the future as it was in the past. There are signs that feeling exceptional has led to complacency. America has gone for no. 1 in the world for the number of students who graduate from college to no. 9, and amidst cries about the failure of our education system, we get the news that children in Shanghai are performing in basic skills better than expected. The trends seem to favor a downward slide here and an upward march there. Even in areas where one would assume that the U.S. is dominant, such as innovation and technology, we are in the middle of the pack, and our digital infrastructure lags behind, which makes no sense given that the U.S. invented the Internet. (more…)