I have been traveling and working in China for over two decades and the one question that dominates through the years — asked by everyone from top government officials to teachers in the classrooms and entrepreneurs — is: “How do you teach creativity, how do we make more Bill Gates, Edisons, and Henry Fords?”

America doesn't need more people than China to compete with them, we just need to ratchet up creativity, imagination, innovation and risk-takers while asking, “What if the impossible isn't?” and then move those ideas from the R&D labs and into world markets. But where exactly is America's edge?

Today our future lies in our classrooms, garages, and entrepreneurial mindsets! The viability of our society and democracy — the very strength of our economy, the quality of our lives, and our place in the world — all depend on our system of education, governance and freedom.

Our competitive edge lives in America's DNA and the Constitution. It is ingrained in our ability to use our creativity, imagination and our unbridled freedom to invent. Everything that is great about America began in someone's imagination. We live in an innovation incubator, ripe for dreaming!

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama did not call China by name when he stated, “Our students don't just memorize equations, but answer questions like “What do you think of that idea?”, “What would you change about the world”, and “What do you want to be when you grow up?“

In America and increasingly in China, you can grow up to be anything you want to be. America's strength is our ability to fail and fail again until we succeed! In response to a question about his light bulb invention, Thomas Edison once replied, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”.

The American Garage

Unlike in China, in America there is not just one way – the government's way – of doing business. We are a nation of “tinkerers” with the advantage of having the world as our garage, where ideas are born this very second.

The Chinese educational system is considered as being efficient at sorting their country's best test-takers from the worst, then struggling to create an intellectual environment ripe for innovation. The albatross that has held China back all these years is the Chinese leaders' historic fear of losing control over its people. That fear of chaos spreading from allowing nonconformity, is a drag on their very desire to break the mold of China's being a nation of copy-cats, unable to break through to becoming a nation of innovators.

Thomas Edison got it right here as well when he said, “Hell, there are no rules here — we're trying to accomplish something.” Nonconformity spurs ideas.

The future will belong to the nation, state and communities that invest in its people. Investing in research and development, innovation, knowledge, creativity coupled with the American can-do spirit will propel us forward.

China, not content to remain the low-cost “factory to the world,” is not stagnant, ripe with ideas to keep their economy humming, its masses working, and the Communist Party in power. In China's quest to become the “innovation nation,” many are studying how we create the next Bill Gates.

Though China's economic growth is phenomenal, they are also facing rising anger from its people, especially from discouraged students unable to find employment as well as farmers who see rising inequities and blatant government corruption.

Communist Party officials are attempting to spur creativity and innovation in a controlled society — a formula that has not been found to be sustainable. America's competitive edge lies in our freedom to rebel, then create and innovate.

Long live the chaos of the American Dream.

Tom Watkins of Northville is a business and educational consultant. He served the citizens of the state as superintendent of public instruction (2001-05) and mental health director (1986-90) and an elected member of the Wayne County Charter Commission 1980-82. Write to him at tdwatkins@aol.com

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Keywords: Innovation China creativity china vs America creative freedom China America