Film: Schools in India, China outshine U.S.
By Bob Caylor
The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
In only 54 minutes, Bob Compton's documentary makes the problem discouragingly plain: India and China, the two most populous countries on Earth, take education more seriously than the United States does. Indian and Chinese parents press their children to excel more than their American counterparts. Their societies celebrate academic achievement as much as U.S. society celebrates sports.
In the 21st century, China and India will dominate the world's economy as the United States did in the mid-20th century, Compton says. But there is hope. Parents can raise their expectations for their children, communities can fund academics as they now fund sports, and mayors and governors can do their part to make teenage math and science whizzes the kind of celebrities that top athletes are now in high school.
That's a message Compton is bringing in his film, "Two Million Minutes." The film's title refers to the total amount of time in a child's high school years. He argues that American children aren't lazy or dense _ many work hard at sports or after-school jobs _ but schools, culture, parents and children themselves don't invest much focus or fortitude in learning.
"Imagine the other football teams are four times bigger than ours, and the players are bigger, stronger and faster," he said. In reality, sports can be a diversion with friends for elite students in China or India. But they spend longer in school each day, their school years are longer than Americans', they spend more time on homework and their parents more often hire tutors for their children.
In other words, China and India take learning as seriously as Americans take high school sports.
The upside for the U.S.? "I guarantee you no Indian high school will ever beat Carmel High School in football. Not in our lifetimes. I'd bet you $1 million," Compton said sarcastically.
The first part of China and India's competitive threat is their size. Together, they have a population of about 2.4 billion, roughly eight times the population of the U.S. In this country, about 54 million children are enrolled in K-12 education, compared with 212 million in India and 194 million in China.
Not only do children Chinese and Indian students spend more time in school, but the course requirements are tougher. Students in the Indian and Chinese high schools he filmed must take more math and science courses, and they have fewer slots for electives in the academic schedules.
The solutions he sees don't make him many friends, especially among youths. He argues that parents need to restrict children's participation in sports and other extracurricular activities. Communities need to stop funding lavish sports facilities and figure out how to channel that money into improved instruction instead. And elected officials need to use their public platforms to celebrate academic superstars.
Compton, who employs many Indian and Chinese in technology companies he's involved in, said he was moved to make the movie after visiting our Asian competition and seeing firsthand how much better prepared their elite students are.
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Find out more about the documentary at www.2mminutes.com.
