In the city in which I now live (a brand new city, just created and already the sixth largest in the state), we have many ethnicities from several continents. Our next-door neighbors are French citizens, although the father is Serbian. They both hold Ph.D.s, one being a specialist in nanotechnology and a professor at Georgia Tech. When they arrived a few years ago, their children barely spoke English; now they are tri-lingual. They are whiz kids in math, music, science, and geography. Some American kids I know, who are the same ages, can barely speak English and have absolutely no idea where France or Serbia might be. America is enriched by its immigrants, but often fails to take advantage.

Consider that Indonesia, China, India, and other countries are catching up with Japan in economic, technological, and scholastic abilities, posing a serious financial challenge to Americans. We are way behind the rest of the developed and developing world, rated somewhere around 41st in academic achievement. Schools are no longer teaching what kids ought to know — they're simply preparing kids for nationalized testing. Our current “No Child Left Behind” program increasingly looks like the result is going to be “No Child's Behind Left!” Statistically, roughly two-thirds of American teens graduate from high school — only 50% of minorities — and of those who graduate, only half can read well enough to pass college courses. Ahh, but those same kids can name all the latest rappers, basketball stars, and tell you where you can buy dope! Narcotics is a billion dollar industry. These dropouts are trading an M.B.A. for an M.B.S. — “must be stoned!”

I can't even interest textbook publishers in a book that explains insurance to teens — yet perhaps five to 10 percent of those teens will end up working for the insurance industry some day in some capacity. Boy, won't our industry be lucky to get that bunch on staff! Why does America have to import teachers from Ireland, nurses from Manila, and computer geeks from Mumbai? Why are Americans not training for these professions?

Group Thinking vs. American Individualism

While there is considerable poverty in much of Asia, many Asians are becoming familiar with American customs, and some Americans are adapting to Asian cultures. When I visited China, I learned that their society was not based on individual initiative. One did not ask, “What do you do?” but rather “What does your danwei (the group to which a person was assigned) do?” Citizens identify with their group, not as individuals. That may change slightly from the old Communist routines, but not to any great extent.

The same is true in many nations, including European cultures. Despite the Common Market and the Euro, Europe remains a collection of individual and very individualistic nations. Consider that in tiny nations such as Belgium or Switzerland, there may be three or four official languages. As Americans have learned from the war in Iraq, many nations are not unified and tolerant like America, but rather are a collection of clans or tribes, often based on heritage or religion. The Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds may all be Islamic, but they all are very different. If 400 years hasn't resolved the Protestant/ Catholic hostility in Northern Ireland (from which my parents emigrated), four years of war is not going to do it in Iraq, either.

Even in America, small groups still maintain a separate language and culture. Consider, for example, the “code talkers” of the Navajo during World War II — the only code the Japanese never broke! Perhaps it is because of such cultural diversity that I enjoy the Tony Hillerman novels so much. Jim Chee and Lt. Joe Leaphorn make Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni culture real, even though these are fictional characters.

But America's culture also is changing. Last September, CBS's 60 Minutes presented a program on the Y-Generation, those children and young people between the ages of eight and 20. They have grown up with cell phones, video games, computers, SUVs, and the structured lives enforced by millions of yuppie-generation, overachieving soccer moms, where every minute of every day is planned and technological communication is done instantly. Everything must be fast and right now, with immediate gratification and no pain! Retailers cater to this multi-billion dollar market.

Educators interviewed on the program noted that while these young people are very motivated and expect to be super achievers with instant success upon graduation from their colleges, the immediate gratification with which they have become familiar is quite different from the real world into which they will be moving.

One significant factor is that today's Y-Gen youths are accustomed to working in teams. They are involved in team sports, team learning, team projects, and team communications, much like the Chinese danwei. As one advertisement stresses, “There is no 'I' in 'team.'” Many of these teams are made up of varied nationalities; Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and Caucasians all on the same team, working on the same project, the team taking the credit. It's a bit like a Dilbert cartoon. But these educators told CBS that the emphasis on team interrelationships and structured activities may be occurring at the cost of individual initiative. One commentator said that the former parental admonition to “go outside and play” is almost foreign to today's children. They have no concept of playing by themselves outside and being away from video games, cell phones with cameras, shopping malls, and the structure of teams. One casualty of all this may well be imagination, and that can be a vital tool in any successful career.

On the other hand, millions of other American children and youths are reaching maturity without any structure or technological connections whatsoever. Often coming from poorer minority neighborhoods with inadequate schools and broken homes, their idea of teamwork is gang membership and breaking the law is their training. When this youthful counterculture collides with the super-achieving technocrats of the Y-Gen, the outcome is far from predictable. How will millions of societal dropouts cope in a technologically advanced, globalized world?

[Next month, we will look at how individual adjusters might deal with foreign visitors who have different customs and attitudes. May a man shake hands with an Islamic woman? Sometimes a little knowledge of protocol can be helpful.]

Ken Brownlee, CPCU, is a former adjuster and risk manager, based in Atlanta. He now authors and edits claim-adjusting textbooks.