“When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me: ‘Finish your dinner — people in China are starving.’ I, by contrast, find myself wanting to say to my daughters: ‘Finish your homework — people in China and India are starving for your job.’” -- from Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat
First, let me thank you all for your attention to the film last Friday. You probably know my answer to the question in the title of this post. I do think there is a crisis - a quiet crisis that is more dangerous than any crisis we face as a country. But this blogging session is not about what
I think. It is your opportunity to give your opinion about 2 Million Minutes, about the so-called crisis in American education, and your feelings about your experience with American education.The film 2 Million Minutes tells the story of how six students use their 2,000,000 minutes (4 yrs) of high school. It quickly becomes obvious that the two students from India and the two from China spend far more time in school and studying than the two students from the United States. While all six students went on to college, the Indian and Chinese students were disappointed that they did not get into their first choice of schools. What does this say about them? Are they weaker students than the film portrayed? Or did they just set their sights higher than the American students?
So, how does all of this relate to you?
Are you concerned or alarmed by what you saw? Do you think that American students like you should be doing something different? Should school officials and teachers being doing something different to help improve how American students are performing?
Is there really a crisis?
You may think that all this talk about a crisis in American education is just dead wrong. What do you think? Is there really a crisis? Do you think that you'll be prepared to compete for the really good jobs when you graduate from college?
Do you think tha
t American students spend enough time in school and studying? Do we spend too much time on other things - sports, TV, video games, or other things? Do you think that you should make changes in the amount of time that you study?Regardless of how you feel about 2 Million Minutes, there is a lot to talk about and debate. I want this to be the most active blogging session so far. Read all of the comments that have been made, enter your own comment, then come back often throughout this week to continue the conversation. The only thing that I ask, is that you keep the conversation thoughtful and intelligent. Be sure to give reasons for the opinions you offer.
Before commenting, take a few minutes to watch the following video:
Helpful Links
USA Today article about 2 Million Minutes
Boston Globe - My lazy American students
This session will end at 12 am on Saturday, January 16.
Student Sleeping image from Flickr
Posts
70 comments:
I believe the film 2 MILLION MINUTES makes a good point! unlike China and India, American students do have other priority's than students around the world. For example... the Chinese boy focused on math, and it looked like his only priority was to get in the advanced math program. The American boy was both a football captain one year, and still had really good grades. American students may not have the same education as other students around the world, but we succeed in multiple things. Just because the Indian students didn't get into their first choice of college, doesn't mean they aren't good students, or didn't try hard. It's more likely that the students who got into the college just worked harder. It also doesn't mean they set their goals higher than Americans. American colleges look at more than just grades in a student. For example, scholarships. You can get into a good college if your talented in say... football (though you do still need good grades). I think Americans learn what they NEED to in school and China and India learn more than that... but I don't believe we need to have more time in school, maybe we SHOULD study more though. Even though we do more than just after school activities, we need to put school first. It's like the Chinese girl... she did ballet and played violin, but her education came first!
I liked the film pretty well. I do think that the American students they chose weren’t the best choice – there are plenty of kids that don’t watch television while studying or focus their life on video games. They did have their good sides, but I think that there would have been better kids for the job.
I wasn’t surprised a bit that the Asian kids didn’t get exactly what they wanted but we did. Both countries have more than twice our population and therefore it is much harder to get into an advanced course because the colleges have higher criteria so that they don’t have a massive amount of students.
Even so, I still think America is way behind. I don’t think there’s much teachers can do, but it is more of parental involvement. The majority of the kids that don’t do well in school come from lower-class families that don’t give as much aid to their children. If all the parents helped with homework, encouraged studying, and gave a good environment to their kids, we’d be like China and India. That’s why it’s so important for us to get a good education so that we can help our kids.
Well, I said we are behind, but I don’t think it’s bad enough to be considered a huge crisis. I really like what Jackie said about how we learn what we have to and the Asians go beyond that. Basically, I think we should spend less time in front of the T.V. and more time studying. Again, I think parents should also be involved. Some of the statistics they said in the video were just astonishing, and not very positive.
I think "2 Million Minutes" is truthful and right about that education in the United States is much lower than India and China think it should be. In america there are a lot of different activities and sports that serve a persons career. I think that the American students like to have fun more than othere students but do try to excell in school. I think that American students are not as smart as students around the world but we are better than them at some things. We should try to study more and try harder in school so we can compete with their competition.
"2 Million Minutes" was a good way to wake us up. I liked what Parker said. He said that American students are involed in other activites like sports, clubs, etc. And that takes away from the studing that we might need to get into a great college and get a good job. China and India might have not have as much opportunites like Americans have.
Or like Nathan said, they could of used differnt students. Most kids watch television, but that doesnt mean that they're bad kids. Also, Nathan said that since China has twice the poputation we have, colleges try to make high standards so that there isn't a huge amount of students in classrooms.
In a way, I think that this movie was a good way to get peoples attention to do something about education.
Well..
I honestly didn't get much out of the movie, but I get the whole point about American students not working as much as those Chinese and Indian kids.
Well I know this wasn't in the movie, but I went to school in Korea (south) for like...four months? I know Korean students weren't in the movie, but they work pretty hard too. I mean like, I have an older cousin that's in his third year of high school, and my aunt is always complaining that his grades suck and that he's not trying hard enough. And she's saying this after he comes home at 12 a.m. from this tutoring place in the neighborhood.
But anyways, I think although we're not as work obsessed like other countries, we're still pretty okay. I know a couple of kids at school (no names) that are just freaking lazy and don't do their work, which gives American students a bad name. My other friends, they study, and they get good grades. Some of them don't get the grades they expected, but I guess that means they should just pay attention more.
For myself...honestly I don't study a lot. I'll review notes and read over stuff, but I don't spend like hours and hours on studying. I just stop whenever I feel like I've taken in enough, and then I go outside and play with the ax in the garage.
Since I like to give examples, I'll talk about my friends! I won't use their real names and use fruits instead.
Okay. So I have this one friend that's a banana. The banana is smart, it is in AP, but it's too lazy to do their stuff so they get bad grades. If they would actually do their homework once in a while, and maybe STUDIED for a test that's coming up, I think the banana could do pretty good.
So I have another friend that's a pineapple. The pineapple likes to get good grades. It's smart, and it's in algebra. I get help from the pineapple, (it's sometimes..usually the other way around) and it's cool. They do lots of other stuff too, but they still do good in school. So that's the pineapple.
My other friend is a lemon. It is very smart. It still gets good grades even if it doesn't study a lot. It likes to have a lot of fun, but when I'm working with the lemon, it is all very serious and works hard.
I guess if we all just tried harder, we could be just as good as those other Chinese or Indian kids without having to do as much as them.
This is what we're looking for. Good job so far. Let's get everyone else moving in this direction.
If most agree that we can do better if we tried, then what are some things that you can do to make that happen - beyond just the simple "work harder" answer? I mean real decisions that you can make.
Well Mr. Veliz,
By working harder, I think we should set ourselves a time limit. That's what my dad suggests for me to do. He says set up what time you're going to do your work, and what time you just wanna chill.
So I get a snack after school and just sit down in front of the tv or something, for like thirty minutes. Then I do my homework until it's finished. If it's taking a while, then I'll do the rest after dinner.
I know I shouldn't be texting while I do homework, but it's SO HARD not to! I try, by putting it half way across the room on silent, but like every five minutes I run over and see if anybody sent me anything. And if I need help on homework, I automatically text my friends. But after I get their help, I just start, you know, texting them about how Mr. Veliz was so rude today (just kidding!) and stuff like that which slows me down A LOT.
But if I did stop texting while during homework, I could probably get my stuff down a little faster.
Is that good enough for you Mr. Veliz?
Wow, "2 Million Minutes" really makes a statement. Depending on who you are and what your habits are, you'll interpret the statement differently.
Personally, I think the movie was pockmarked with flaws. Yea India has a lot of smart peeps out there and all but after looking at the video posted at the end of the blog I realized that "2 Million Minutes" wasn't as accurate as I thought it was. One of the facts in the informational video was that the 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's (smartness level) is greater than the total population of the United States. Put more simply India has more honor kids than America has kids. It's probrably the same with China (if I'm not correct sorry). This just goes to show that it's not a fair comparison between the two countries.
Another variable that I didn't agree with is that India and China both have more population than the U.S. which inspires competition in the young minds of those nations. That does not occur here in America, so my point still stands. Is this a fair representation?
What if the video wasn't about U.S. students falling behind in educatuion. What if "2 Million Minutes" stood for the time practicing football or someother sport and if it was about football(the one where you score touchdowns, not soccer) I don't think that there would be any competition against China or India for the title of most obsesive.
I geuss what I'm trying to say is that American pupils can get good grades if they try while juggling strenuous extra cirricular activities like football, playing instruments, and other arts such as acting or singing. Though to say that Chinese or Indian kids can't do it isn't true. We see the Chinese girl in the movie playing violin and practicing ballet. But it seems that she prioritizes them second to school where Americans put them on an equal level.
Opposite to what I just said I do thinks parts of this movie were eye-opening and true. If this globalizing economy depends on better minds in the future then those who proritize better will succeed better. Right now it looks like China and India are excelling in this invisible race.
One thing that really factors into dedication is how well of a learner you are. What if a kid in India with the same I.Q. level as me had to study triple than I had to study for a day's lesson. This just means that he'll spend more time in front of books and I can spend more time on T.V. and video games or sports. If this is the case, then is China or India more dedicated to learning than the U.S. or are they just not getting the lessons as fast...vice versa as well.
Mr. Veliz mentioned that we need to elaborate on the simple answer: "work hard" to the "how can we do better" question. I myself find that I spend a lot of time on the T.V. and sure I'll watch cartoons or Fringe, but at least a little of my time is spent on educational channels as well. If you can incorporate education into something fun and still have it remain fun then that's how we'll fix our problem.
I sure hope America gets competitive in the educational area soon or we're screwed...=(
I think one thing I could improve is my studing method... I also agree with Maggie. A time limit is something that could help us, and personally me. I also text when I'm doing my homework. I mean sometimes its to asks questions about homework but sometimes it's just ot talk. I think I need to improve that too, just like Maggie said(:
Sometimes I loose track on what im doing and then Im like "OMG! I need to get my head on strait!!"
I felt that the film 2 Million Minutes really shows a good depiction of how some American students here are slacking in studies but many Chinese and Indian students are really engaged in studying. This I think is the reason why many Asians are going far ahead in curriculum but many American students are going ahead in other things such as sports. I agree with most of the things said in this film but I would have to say that if all students here just put more effort and time into studies then we could catch up to the Indian and Chinese students. We as Americans have very good teachers and education but unless if we take it in then we won't gain anything from it. What we American students should do is put studies first in our life and then put extracurricular activities because they won't help us much when we need to get into college. Even though we are in middle school and we don't have piles of homework we should still start practicing and going ahead in education so if you fall behind a little you won't have to catch up as much. It would also help if students who have friends who are not studying as much as they should, for them to encourage their friend to work harder in their studies to get a better grade. What I think parents should do it put a strict time limit for TV and games every day and then the rest of the day studying. Students here also should have to responsibility of doing all of their homework without being told. I think that the Chinese and the Indians are doing a great job in studies even though they have some extracurricular activities so we American students should do the same as well.
I believe that the film "2 Million Minutes" tells the truth on how schools are running right now. The film encourages me to do better in school.
I think that American students should work a little more harder than we do because in the future, we will be competing against the Chinese and Indians for the better jobs.
At the same time, however, I feel that Indian and Chinese students should also spend a LITTLE time doing non-academic things as well.
This film definitely opened my eyes to a problem i never knew anything about. There are all kinds of stereotypes that Indian and Chinese kids are the superbrains at math and science, and I always thought maybe, you know, it was in their wiring or something. It turns out that they just try harder, which really made me think.
I believe that one of the reasons Chinese and Indian kids study so much more and try much harder is because they don't have as many opportunities as we do. In our school alone, we have football, soccer, cross-country, track, volleyball, etc, and loads of clubs. I think in some of the other countries, kids aren't given those opportunities and so they pretty much focus on schoolwork. If I didn't ever have anything to do ever except study, I could be just like all those Indian kids.
(p.s. I think that I'm the lemon in Maggie's example. And i definitely know who the banana is.)
If you ask me, this whole crisis thing is kind of dramatic and exaggerated, even if we don't work as hard as Chinese and Indian kids.
How can we improve? I think that one thing that a lot of people haven't realized they could do is help others. I know there’s some tutoring thing where Swift Creek kids can help elementary kids. That alone can make a huge difference because it is allowing them to understand more things and get a better job when they grow up. There’s also that movie the Blind Side, which I haven’t seen but I kind of know what happens. There’s a guy who was doing terribly in school and then he was adopted and that lead to success. It’s scenarios like this that inspire people, and in my opinion, allow us to do better in life.
I personally think that China and India just spend more time in the books than other things so they are farther along, educational wise... Since there population is 2 billion, plus (Like Mr. Veliz said in classs) its harder to educate everyone so the standards for college is harder than college here.
wow yall right alot but i think that the movie "2 Million Minutes" was not really good but it had alot of detail and it explained alot of things i wish it were more like interesting to watch then i would love it but thats it!!!!!!!!!
i ment yall write alot
I think that two Million Minutes was trying to show us, the students. That we need to start setting goals now. Before it's to late. We need to stop and think how you want your life to go. Study hard or do extra credit whatever it takes to strive for your chances to becoming something great. We need to stand tall and still be the one nation. Hopefully people, kids will stop playing video games and take out the dusty homework cramped in their backpack and start doing there homework and pulling there grades up. The kids that are studying hard could take there time out and help the kids that aren't trying. We are America we stand tall together. Lets work together and pull our grades up.
But Cara enstead of dropping everthing fun and just doing homework. We can have fun at the same time just have extra time studying and doing homework!
Also i think "2" milion Minitues will be a crisis if we don't keep up the hard work we will be falling behind. But not only us we will bringging evreyone else down with us. So study hard and be organized and have fun with it. Enstead of sitting down on and watching t.v when you have piles of homework to do. If we do our homework, and have some fun in the middle and get back to studying there will not be a crisis!
Haha, I'm glad that you agree Megan.
Madeline, that's a very good point. I think you're right about how that they don't have as many opportunities as us, so they are more focused on schoolwork.
And also, please shut up about who you think who is in my fruit example. I asked very NICELY (:
Hahaha, thanks Maggie(: I also think that there IS a crisis because American students need to focus most of their time on their studies. This is what my mommy says when I bring home a bad grade. (I would like to point out that, that doesnt happen alot. I was just saying:) ) But Im also not saying that kids should give up the activites that the are in now...
Well thats all I have to say noww....
I really liked the movie 2 MILLION MINUTES, but I really thought that they did not show the proper side of America. I's sort of like...George Washington. He had like a really ugly side and when he got pictures taken of him, he showed his good side. 2 MILLION MINUTES showed the grotesque, pimpley oozy side of America. They showed the side that's like ALL I WANT TO DO IS PARTY ALL THE TIME!! When really, that's just the blond's... Anywhoo, what they sould have said is how determined we are to get good grades, and that even though we mostly don't, we are upset... well, most of us anyway.
I do declare that there is NO crisis, quiet or not because that is how life is- we win some and wwe loose some. This is just one of those races of the world. DUH! WHY ELSE WOULD THEY CALL IT THE HUMAN RACE?!?!?! I just also want to say that because it is a race, we are going to beat them with our competitave edge untill they have a stale taste in their mouth... like when you lick a 5 gum wrapper...
This is almost off topic, but it's still sort of hanging on the guard rail.
If I had a choice on what I could blog about, I would've said that what we should really be worrying about is the children in Africa, where they don't have any education and have to beg for money, and take care of their two- year- old brother when their only 6 themselves. Or the children in Haiti that have voodoo- believing parents and they can't go to school.
But, that is off topic, so I will continue to say that even though we ARE far behind the people that are pro's at the violin that are two, because they practice constantly, there are always going to be people far behind us that have little to no education.
I think that the movie DID address a serious topic, though, and that is that the students in the U.S. are seriously lacking because of absence of studying.
I think that them studying so dang hard is bad for them more then it helps them because they really seem to be lacking social skills be only using their time studying and not having more then 3 minutes time for doing sports or other activities that will enable them to be more socially active.
Like Nathan I also wasn't surprised that the forign kids didn't get into the schools of their choice because of the population differences and the level of education that they were trying for. the forign kids were trying for far more prestigous schools then the Carmel highschool kids.
Carol Teffy
To me, the movie " Million Minutes" wasn't all too good and exciting to watch. It is almost like people are trying to lower our country's wealthyness and our fame. But I do realize that anyone around the world could take anyone's job that they are working toward to because in some areas of the world, (like Mr. Rogers was saying) education is all some family's have to do. They have not a whole lot of money so they teach their kids about education so they can do the thing that they are doing today.
The main thing that I think students here in America should realize is that just because you think you are working hars ti become a lawyer, doctor, banker, ect. doesn't guarentee you that you will get that job because someone in china could be working harder and longer than yourself and could possibly get the job over you.
But I do agree with the movie when it says that the United States's student's grades, IQs, and things like that is lower than other popular countries such as China and India. But if students keep reminding theirselves that they aren't guarenteed to get into college, I think they can push themselves hard enough to get through it.
Oh, Uh, I'm sorry Mr. Veliz! I forgot the 2 in the 2 Million Minutes at the very beginning of my comment.
I kind of agree with the film, and kind of disagree. First of all,I think that Chinese and Indian students do study more than most American students. But I don't think that you should spend EVERY MINUTE of your day studying. I agree with Nathan, we are falling way behind, but its not bad enought to be considered a HUGE crisis.
I agree with Caroline when she said that the Africans in Africa don't have much of an education because they have a low developed economy so even more we as American students who have a very good education should care more about it than other things like video games. Maybe if students push themselves to do less electronic games then they will do better in school because they can be very addicting and could ruin your thinking skills if you are looking at it so much of your day. Studying also helps students minds get exercise and expand in knowledge so it doesn't forget stuff often. I also agree with Maggie because sometimes it is hard to stop texting or playing games while doing homework because it is fun. What you could do to avoid that problem is set a time for studies where you keep your cell phone off and away and just work on plain studies then you don't get too tempted to text your friends.
i agree with gabby! :)
I think that all the comments said so far are somewhat genaric, we need to stop slacking. Or at least that's what they've been advising. Another big part in acedemic failure in Americans is excuses.
Just the other day I was mentioning to my friend that I was in an advanced class and wasn't that good at sports. He also has a history of bad grades. After saying this whether he was jealous or just making excuses he said that he didn't really try hard at school and said that he would start trying hard in high school. Now that's slacking cause technically I'm taking a high school course right now...
Angela says in her blog that we should spend EVERY MINUTE of the day studying. My sister just made the soccer team after working her butt off. Should she just drop soccer off the face of the Earth?@!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?@!#$?!@#$%?!@#$%?!#$%?!@#$?!%?%^&?!@$?%^>?@#$?%??
I know that this isn't my period, but i just was looking on all of the other classes' blogs. Brendan: I think that you should be corrected because Angela said she DOESN'T think we should spend every minute of the day studying. I just really wanted to correct that and that's all i had to say.
It suprises me that at the rate China and India are having honors students compared to us could turn out very bad for us.
Im not saying we have to completely change. I mean 2 million minutes had a great point, but really americans need to get thier priority streaght. We have always had it the easy way and now we got to do it like all the other parts of the world. BUT a whole country doesnt just change in a day. I think teachers and kids and adults should set higher goals and work to get them. We should gradually work up to their standards and even try to pass them. Kids and adults can keep their proiriteis in other areas to but we have to put way more effort in the work catagoery.
I think most of us agree that we should put more effort in working, but, really the number of people who agree and the number of poeple who agree and accually put effort towards it is completely diffrent.
urrgent: everybody read!
Imagine putting yourself in thier shoes... not having much and a really small amount of poeple that make it gives them have the will to do it. If we gain that will to work then because all of are oppertunitues unlike them can set us back on track.
None of us(americans) understand what its like for them. Americans always had it all. What we NEED to do is walk a mile in their shoes and turn around and walk it again. Then, we would understand how much we got compared to them, and i bet each of us would like to keep it that way!
even me saying all this would be hard to put as much effort as i should. It would take some real reason for me to do that, but until now i admit i had no idea and im pretty sure it was the same for all of yall. THAT is why i believe this quite crisis is so bad because the chinese and indians are gonna come in when we are a "sleep" and steel what is rightfully ours.
If you tell somebody this they probally dont know how important this is and wont care so i think this should be announced to america.
devin
Tyler: I agree, the film was sort of-ish insulting. I mean, they didn't call us bad names, like Americans are idiots! but it still made me feel kind of like eh..,
Brendan: Like Tiye said, Angela said we SHOULDN'T be spending every minute studying. Watch it boy.
And..who's Cara?
Does anybody agree or disagree with me that parental involvment is one of the biggest ways America can be like China and India? As I said in my first comment, that's why it's important for us to get a good education so we can make sure that when we grow up our kids will have a good one too.
Oh, and Maggie: I think Cara and Cassie are teachers that Mr. Veliz invited.
Mr.Veliz told us 6th graders to check out u guys blogging page
and to me everyone did pretty well
I agree with you Nathan.... But I disagree to because kids should of learned to limit themselves to different activites..
I also agree with you because parents are suppose to restain things like tv, video games, internet and other things
I agree with everyone on there comments about 2 million minutes
Brendan, I didn't say that we should spend every minute of the day studying, I said we SHOULDN'T
I apologize for saying the statement about spending every minute studying, I just read it in large font and just figured it was what I thought it was.
I think you're right Nathan, parents are a HUGE part in turning our performance around. I think that the students that aren't doing so well in their classes are the one's with not-so-enthusiastic parents. Parents really need to encourage and push their childs...teachers can't do it alone.
All with this 2 Million Minutes what about 33 Minutes.
I recomend you google it, interesting stuff.
They werent really being mean because it was pretty much the truth, i mean we are slowly falling behind, but if we fix it we can quickly get back on top.
BUT the big question is how do you get a whole country to change quickly?
My Answer is that it first SHOULD be announced to the whole country...because most people dont know about it (the whole reason its a quite crisis). Then we should get teachers to push harder and get kids to set higher goals for themselves and have the will to do them.
Because... Just like i said last time having someone agree to this is one thing and having someone agree and put effort towards it is another...
I think I could agree with most of what 2 Million Minutes, but there were some things that could be considered inaccurate. The number of people in China and India are much greater than that of the United State's. There for of course there percentages are going to be larger.
Also I don't agree with the part that we do sports alot and not enough study time.
The movie 2 Million Minutes really tried to make it's point when they went back and forth through countys showing how the kids seem to concentrate on certain subjects since they believe that this should be their main prority.
I also think that 2 Million Minutes was telling us what we already thought of American students and that the Chinese and Indian students were smarter than us. We probably need to try harder in school and study way more so we can actually have a chance in the competition.
I belive that the movie 2 million minutes was a great movie but for me it was hard to answer the questions cause i was sitting in teh back of the room and couldnt hear what they were saying. Other than that the movie was right to the point.
I thought this video was very "informative". It did make me want to do better but when you look at how much work the people of India and China do. Americans do so much more during thier lives than just sitting in their room studying all day. Lots of people have sports or afterschool activities. As Americans we do try to do well in school but we also have other things we would like to do while were young. We would like to be able to do more than just read textbooks 24/7. I do agree we should spend more time studying but I feel we could be doing more with our lives, we also need to have time to live a life worth while so we don't have to go through a "mid-life crisis" that I have seen often in this area of time. It may have been because they didn't get to do much as a child or that they just had a bad childhood period. Either way we need to be able to live our lives without having to be locked in our room practically all day because we have to "study". So, therefore I feel we should study a little more but i don't think we should have to study as much as the people of India and China.
I changed my mind on one of the issues. I really think that we Americans are spending just the right amount of time in school and that any country that spends way more is just an overachiever. Not that overachieving is bad or anything, I just don’t think there’s a crisis at all in the American education. I now agree with everyone that says the way we are is fine and disagree with everyone that says there’s a crisis.
The reason I say this is because if all three of the countries were the same size (as of population), we might be doing just as well as the others but with less schooling. Basically, I think extra schooling isn’t necessary.
I agree totally with Nathen in his first comment. Americans are behind because they are more worried about T.V. and video games than studying. Their grades were not the best but they were not the worst either. Now you ask yourself the question then why did they make it into the college they wanted when the China and India kids didn't? Well this is true but the China and India kids were trying to get into some great colleges. This does not mean that the Americans are stupid this just means that the Americans should try harder in studying instead of trying harder to pass the next level in a video game.
Parker,
I think we have a chance in this competition. I think everyone here is smart, (the most of us, anyways) and if we put some more effort into it by like studying, we could go up to the top.
It's not like Americans are dumb. Just a little bit more focused on other things.
Another thing. (Not to you Parker,) a lot of girls at our school, I mean a lot of girls, are more focused on their ego, and appearance than their schoolwork. Maybe that's one of the reasons why a lot of us get bad grades. Like some girls are afraid to like do good in school because they're afraid someone's gonna call them a nerd.
So yeah.
Iv'e been thinking about these videos for a while now and have several different views suprisingly. Depending on who you are, (and how you are in school), some of these points WILL be interpreted differently.
My first thought to these videos was sort of a "wow, never would have thought that". In all do respect I believe that for say Indians and Chinese are in someways..."more prepared for learning". Why? well sadly I don't have an answer. My best guess would be that the American, the Chinese, and the Indian cultures are very different and have different ways of thinking based on that culture. Basically I believe that the priorities for each culture are very different. For one thing, there are more opportunities in America. (I hope this made sense).
What I got out these videos was an eye opener. Although China and India have much larger populations, (which makes them uncomparable to the U.S.), I really do now think there is a race for jobs and quite frankly a race for control in the world. For example, when Russia put a man in space before us, it was kind of a scare because they had that kind of power now. I can't even imagine what India or China can do with thier type of education.
However maybe we shouldn't be scared. America is the greatest country in the world and I don't think a lesser education will change that. I do believe though that we as students should have that natural competitiveness and want to learn more than say someone in China. If we want good jobs one day than in these times we're just gonna have to buckle down and study.
But there is more in life than school. There is family,religion and of course sports. The dream of most children is to become a pro athlete and if you succeed than great but if you dont, you better have a dadgum education is all I say, or your gonna just need some luck.
In conclusion, I do think we should be worried. But worried about the fact that there is someone out there getting more educational opportunities than you. The last thing I have to say is it's your life and you have a wonderful opportunity living in a country like America. It's your decision if you intend to do something with it...or not.
I think the "2 Million Minutes" film was not the best of films but, it did deliver a very IMPORTANT message. I agree that us American kids are falling back in our studies but, I don't think that we are complete idiots. I do think we need to study more and get out priorities straight but, we don't need to have our nose in a book EVERY SINGLE minute. I will admit that us, American students are slacking but, I think we could fix this silent crisis if we hit the books and study hard and stop spending so much time texting our friends or having our eyes glued to the tv. I think America, as a nation, will fix this silent crisis.
Last time I bloged I accidently spelled country's wrong, but what I was really going to talk about is that I did notice that the teens from other country's seem to only want one main job, just like what Jackie said. The kids think that they need to be focused on one thing so they won't have to work as hard on the other subjects,(that's just what i think is going on) but here in America they seem to know that one job might not work out that well and if they study other subjects they'll be able to have a second choice if the first job doesn't go so well.
I would have to say that I agree with Maggie because we have a good education so we do stand a chance in this competition. All we have to do is work harder in studies. I also agree with Devin because we don't understand the pressure that the Chinese and Indians are going through by their parents and teachers to be the best when it comes to studies. We have an easier life, if you'd ask me, so we don't have much pressure to finish our homework and study EXTRA hard for a test. We are lucky we have so many chances to do extracurricular activities but we should not take extra advantage of that and we should still work hard because our childhood life determines our future and our jobs.
I think that education is super important and if we don't start picking our feet we the silent crisis could turn into a not so silient disaster.
Worst case scenario is that our economy gets outdated and collapses and we have tons of Indian and Chinese imigrants trying to get ito the "easy" colleges over in America because they couldn't make a living in their country.
This was a good wake up call for for me I knew we wer behind in our education compared to other countries, but i din't know how far behind. American students do have other priorities to keep their mind set on which is a disadvantage and an andvantage in someways. They pointed that out in the movie but they also showed the chinese girl with extra curicular activities as well, like playing the violin. When studemts in America have really good grades and people compare them to other students in China or India, and we must be doing something wrong. I have heard people say that students in other countries have a bigger population and thats what makes them want to strive and be the best that they can be because they have to beat out the competition to actually go to the college they want to. I believe that is true because in The U.S students don't have as big as compitition to fight agianst when trying to get in college. Overall this movie was true and poited out the things that we need to work on. I didn't think this movie was going to be interesting but i kept wanting to hear more when i was watching it.
I agree with Brendan, I knew that other countries ahd a better education than us but it suddnely turned from being a little probliem into becoming big without people knowing or paying attention to it. Not paying attention to this problem could turn disastrous for our schools in America
Whoops I spelled my name wrong
Another great way to help this crisis is to get schools to push kids harder to make them set and fullfill higher goals.
to the kids that think this crisis is just a compitition, if a whole country isnt motivated and rather be at the movies is it still a race for jobs or race for slobs.
Give it a tink.
33 minutes...
give it a tink
i agree with what Blake said, that America is the greatest country in the world and that we have many other priorities, family, religion, etc. But it is a matter of priorities, isn't it? People in China and India are just as religious as we are. They value family the same way. But, they still seem to passing us by in the world of education.
Here, our aspirations are much different in terms of what we want to be when we grow up. We have so many choices. But, the Chinese (or was it Indian, i forget) said that the main career of choice was an engineer, something so much more practical than all the choices we have today. Maybe it's just that Americans are more creative with job picking.
would you rather have agood education and work for pfizer or be a undereducated person flippin' burgers at Mickey ds, give it a tink
I totally agree with Megan. when I watched 2 million minutes it really got to me, that I have to buckle down and study more, than watching t.v, and to do my homework at home. Instead sometimes doing it at school. But I felt kinda weird when the other kids on the movie not from the U.S said that we spend more time doing sports and stuff. But like you can do sports and homework, like for example Tyler, he does like sports all the time and he is one of the smartest people I know! But for me I think that I should start doing more studying and homework than texting,or watching t.v.
Maggie, I think I'm banana..I really wanna get better at studying..(:
All these comments that you guys have made so far are REALLY good. I would have to say i didn't get what Deanna meant when she said that the movie was "right to the point." I think that this movie did have some things that were true and some that were false because when they filmed it they didn't take the opinion and view of all American students and how they deal with their studies. What I think was really important about this film was that it had the lives of people in Asia and here in America so it showed very many similarities but even more differences. We might think that we have a lot of homework but after you watch this movie then you will see that there are many others that have double the amount of homework and have to study twice as hard to pass a test, quiz, or exam.
I think that the film 2 million minutes makes a good point. I think that it i time important that students don't focus all of their time to studying and school. By doing so this could put stress on the student. But if the student has something to do besides school that is fun and relaxing. For example the two american students were involved in clubs, sports, and other after-school activities.
I am not saying that extra- curricular activities should be the main focus. But that, having these activities releives stress and lets kids be kids and just have fun.
The one thing that I didn't like is how they portrayed that American students don't have "the drive" to suceed. This isn't nesicarily true because in this economy and time Students have to work twice as hard to get decent paying jobs. This is because 1,ooo's of people are fighting for 25 job spots. This makes American students work hard to suceed in life becauase they need to get a job that can get them by and let them pay bills. So the assumption that american students don't have "the drive" to suceed isn't true, because we want to do good in this shaky economy.
the average big corp exec. makes 10000$ in his first hour on the job, that maore than most families making 6 months
I agree with Sean. In our society, students do have to work hard to get good paying jobs and not only Americans, but Indians, Chinese and other countries as well. We ALL have to work hard to compete in growing and failing economies around the world.
Its a given that you must have at least a bachelor or masters degree to compete for good jobs. The next generation may have to get PhDs.
I agree with Devin, that the students need to get more motivated at school and get motivated to learn. I we don't then we won't see a change in the future for our schools. I don't think students are motivated to learn in middle school and early highschool, but that's when we don't realize that in order to get a good paying job we need to get good grades in school and take our classes serious.
wow I am really not good with my name
Oops looks like I missed the time limit. Sorry Mr.Veliz, I got caught up on History fair.
As to what I think on 2million minutes, it was on target and india and China are going to eclipse us in education with gusto if we don't get our goals straightend out soon and get with teh program. Even though India and China have much better statistics we still have our potential and if we get out going tike our buts are on fire, we can regain our place at the head of the pack.
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