Bob Compton, a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, is about to release the documentary he has produced called Two Million Minutes. The film follows six students–a boy and a girl going through their last year of high school in China, India and the United States. It’s about to stir up a hornet’s nest of discussion about how we view education in our country.
Bring it ON!
I interviewed both Bob and the film’s director, Chad Heeter, by phone last week as they prepared for the launch of the movie. I asked them what they wanted to accomplish with this film.
Did they hope to fan the flames of competition so that American schools would kick into high gear? Did they want American parents to see how hard their kids’ Indian and Chinese counterparts were studying? Did they hope that policymakers would use it as a vehicle for mobilizing legislators to create stricter education requirements?
“What I really hope,” Bob told me, “is to get people talking, and the most important question I want viewers to ask is this: how do our students spend their two million minutes? The obvious follow-up question is, ‘Are we satisfied with these choices?’”
Chad was very clear in his goal for this documentary. “My intention all the way through was to allow the characters (the students) to do what they do and provide the space for some great cinematic moments. They are the storytellers, and our role was to simply allow that to happen naturally.”
Sometimes the most mundane activities revealed startling differences in choices the students made on a daily basis. For example, both of the American students had part-time jobs. Their Asian peers spent those extra 15 or so hours a week in school, practicing violin or even playing in a boy band.
“There was no need to interject anything,” said Chad. “Even though we included compelling commentary from noted experts, the film flows as a story more than any kind of statement, and the students are the ones who have something to teach us by simply sharing their lives.”
That’s precisely what both Bob and Chad wanted, and they were open to whatever emerged.
One theme became apparent immediately. Some parents at the screenings said they were glad that kids in the US are “well-rounded” and that they have more fun. School isn’t just about education, they felt—it’s about learning how to be in a social structure. Some parents stated that education should include opportunities for entertainment. And there was an unmistakable tendency on the parents’ part to view American kids as “cool” and their Asian counterparts as, well, geeky.
“But these kids were not geeky,” insists Bob. “They were funny, popular, talented in a variety of ways, and very socially adept. Despite the hours spent studying, they had plenty of interests—including pop culture—and they were quite personable.”
Do we have a bias against those who excel in math? Do we value popularity over academic achievement? Do we emphasize sports over science?
Well, duh. You do remember high school, don’t you?
Bob thought it would be valuable to do a screening of Two Million Minutes at Harvard University. He invited graduate students from the Law School, the Kennedy School of Government and the School of Education to watch the film and share ideas.
The first surprise: only a couple of those present had actually been to India or China, and none of them had seen firsthand the differences in the way these two countries approach education. Red flag.
The discussion was spirited. Bob was heartened to see that these graduate students were able to analyze the various strengths and weaknesses of the emphasis on rigorous education in China and India, but he was surprised by the group’s general insistence that the US approach is superior.
See, this is precisely the problem—those who are immersed in the ideology of higher education and innovation in the US are shockingly ignorant of the way other countries are moving forward, and they remain committed to defending a system that has numerous faults.
If these future leaders and policy makers don’t get it, who will?
I thought you’d never ask. 
It’s easy to point fingers. We blame the teachers, the administrators, the policy makers, and the president. And those folks turn around and blame the parents.
How tedious.
Let’s rise above that and start looking inside instead of outside for solutions.
My fear is that people will watch this movie and then jump into the mindless patter about signing our kids up for Mandarin and math. That’s the ticket! We’ll beat those Indians and Chinese at their own game.
Honey, we are not even in the same ballpark.
China and India together graduate 12 times more engineers than the US. China graduates more honors students than the US graduates students. One hundred percent of Indian college grads speak English—and there are nearly twice as many as there are students graduating from US universities each year.
Perhaps if we were better at math we’d understand the immensity of the issue. Our knee-jerk reaction to competition is rendering us ridiculous—and second rate.
Let’s drop the math-and-Mandarin approach to “winning” and take a good look at how we can take advantage of this monumental shift in our global economy.
It’s time to step up and make changes that will trigger tremendously positive shifts in education for our children. We can start by talking with those who can make this happen.
So, let’s begin by asking this: Who’s in charge here?
If you’re a parent, the answer is YOU.
Ready to get started? Oh, good. There are A LOT of amazing options available to help you help YOUR student leapfrog over those who are stuck in the old way of thinking.
We’re going to have fun with this.
6 Comments
November 7, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I think the questions the film will raise are more important than any message from the film; questions such as, if we are more concerned with a child fitting into a social environment than knowing math, are we prepared for a generation of socially-capable idiots?
In a country like India or China, I probably would be have already begun studying to be a scientist or engineer by now, because the schools would cater to those most likely for success (which would be most of them). Here, however, I was bored with school because nothing challenged me. I could afford to have a part-time job because I wouldn’t have spent that time doing homework anyway.
So, do we have good intentions by striving for our children to ‘fit in’ and develop team-working, communication, intrapersonal relationship skills? Absolutely. But those aren’t the type of qualities that breed innovation, advanced technology, and increased efficiency; those are not only the things that brought America ahead in the first place, they’re the same qualities that will propel the next global superpower to the forefront.
People say it’ll take another “Sputnik Space Race”-type technological competition in order for the US to once again focus on science and mathematics; unfortunately for us, we’re already losing this race to several countries on the other side of the world, each and every day. We have a lot of catch-up to do, and the longer we wait the harder it will be to recapture that technological dominance. That’s not to say it’s impossible, just that we have a long road ahead of us.
So let’s hope Bob is right, and rather than deliver any divine message of how me spending half my life playing video games while the Indian students and Chinese students study 24/7 is indicative of this nation’s perilous technological position, this film can simply open up a nation-wide discussion of the changes we need to make if we hope to compete at the global level.
November 11, 2007 at 1:08 am
I’ve had an opportunity to preview the movie, also. It seems we are comparing cultures not just secondary education. Michael Barone wrote in Hard America, Soft America that our incompentent 18-year-olds become the most competent 30-year-olds in the world. Yes, our education isn’t what it should be. However, the opportunities and competition produced by a free society are overcoming those shortcomings. We underestimate the effects of liberty and self-determination.
November 12, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Hi Lynn,
Well, it’s true. We ARE comparing cultures. And we are seeing that other cultures value education more or at least differently than we do.
As far as our 30-year-olds are concerned, my concern is that today’s 30-year-olds grew up differently than the 30-year-olds who will be out there doing their thing in, say, 15 or 20 years. We can’t compare adults now with those who will be out in the Real World in the future.
My issue is simply this: we are resting on our laurels. We are spending more time defending our way of doing things than considering NEW ways of doing them.
So, I’m hoping to encourage people (students and parents) to open their eyes, pay attention, and see how they might make choices that will provide opportunities for the growth and learning they’ll need in the future.
It’s pretty simple.
Liberty and self-determination? Cool. But they are not enough. We cannot make the critical mistake of assuming that things will continue as they always have.
Shift happens, and we need to see it.
Best, Maya
November 28, 2007 at 3:25 pm
[...] movie already. Read my posts on the early responses to the film from Harvard grad students here , Bob’s response to their response here, and a bit of correspondence with Neil Ahrendt, an [...]
February 8, 2008 at 5:37 pm
My concern is that we are training students to enter a system that is at war with itself. Education has not seemed to notice that the current industrial economy is unsustainable. Is preparing students to enter a system that is at war with itself really preparing them for the future?
Most thinking out there right now about education is “in the box”. We need to step out of it. Why is everything a race and why do we need to compete against each other all the time? Might there be other alternatives that are better suited to the challenges humanity faces?
I’ve tried to distill some of these ideas in a short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR2HrHXSuYM
I think the discussion needs to be broadened.
Regards.
February 20, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I just saw the trailer for this documentary on the news this morning and look forward to seeing the entire film. There are many problems with the educational system in this country and it is difficult to know where to start. The movie points out that alot of it is cultural and the fact that we admire sports figures much more than intellects. I can’t help but mention though that another bit part is our policy of ‘no child left behind’ which focuses on the lowest achieving student in the class leaving out those students who are gifted. Our society assumes that gifted students need no help, but in fact they are sitting through classes bored to tears because they have already learned the information on their own possibly years earlier than it is taught in school. Forced to do worksheet after worksheet rather than spending that time reading and learning more they are held back. Many of our brightest students who may also be our best hope for the future eventually quit school because it fails to address anything of relevance to them. Schools need to change. To stop pretending that every child learns in the same way is a good start. Having teacher education include more emphasis on subject matter knowledge would be another big improvement. High school teachers need degrees in the subject that they teach. If nothing else this film will at least begin a dialogue of how to improve our educational system.