jeri Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Just saw this tonight and I'm not sure whether to be happy I homeschool, unhappy I homeschool since I don't think I could feel good about myself if I pushed them as hard as the kids in India/China are, and concerned about the future of the US due to our "broken" school system! Very interesting movie, but I need time to process. And why/how did they find these two vapid teens in the States to include??? Sheesh! jeri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeri Posted May 3, 2008 Author Share Posted May 3, 2008 The producer of this documentary named the title for the 2 million minutes that teenagers have at their disposal from during high school, and he looks at snapshots of 2 teens in the US, 2 in India and 2 in China. He finds (no surprise here) that the Chinese, adn to a lesser extent, teh Indian students, spend much more time than the US students on either school or studying. They also take education much more seriously, whether due to parental pressure on internal pressure. So what? Well, "experts" say that because of this tremendous decline in American math and science know-how, along with increased capabilities in these two Asian countries, our economy will start to tank within this generation. A worthwhile quote in teh movie is that "the [educational] system is broken here in America." I do think that the movie comes off as being a bit of propaganda, but I do agree with a number of premises, one being that because US students are so satisfied with their lives, they don't have the need or desire to work hard to get ahead. Also, our high school classes are in place to advance students, vs. weeding out the competent ones from those who don't care or don't produce. Anyway, if anyone sees it or wants to discuss further, I'm open! Here is the website: www.2MMinutes.com. jeri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmegan Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 I haven't seen it, but it's a topic that interests me. First of all, I think that a lot of these comparisons are spurious. I was reading the article in the New York Times last week about the Koren students who have to stay up until 2 to get all the work done and wake up at five and feeling awful for them... until I remembered that I went to an elite prep school in the US and my schedule was similar! If you look at the top kids at the top high schools in the US, they're all taking 8 AP classes and playing 2 sports and writing novels and building orphan hospitals with their bare hands and doing all of this (pretty ridiculous, IMO) stuff to get into college. But of course if you compare these really top tier Asian kids to sort of middle of the road kids from middle of the road school districts, it's strikingly different. Secondly, a small dead horse that I'll add another whack out, our schools teach creativity and problem solving, which their schools do not. The aim of these Asian kids is to get to a top US college, but when they do they are often totally lost. This is cliche, but it's true. Finally, I think there should be a happy medium. I think the US system says "it's okay to be stupid. So we're going to put you in the bottom track and never ask you to think too hard." There's never any impetus or encouragement to get OUT of the bottom track. Once you're there, you're there for life. Yes, some kids are smarter than others, but it's like the smart kids (who more often than not just have the "right" parents who know how to advocate for their kids) are the only ones who are challenged, while the kids who are pegged as being "average" are given stuff they don't have to think too hard about. ALL kids should be challenged... but, at the same time they should be able to go to bed at a reasonable hour! There has to be a happy medium between demanding the best, and not expecting ridiculous quantities of work from a child. I know these musings are sort of disjointed, but it's been something I've been thinking about since having that little realization last week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamagistra Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 As a Netflix junkie, I won't see it until it's released to DVD, but it looks like a very interesting film. Thank you for posting about it. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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