2 Million Minutes a Film Essay
Uploaded by shh9999 on Dec 10, 2011
2 MILLION MINUTES ESSAY
2 million minutes is a film that argues that U.S. students are performing at or under average in math and science in comparison to China and India. The title of this film indicates the amount of minutes in a four-year time frame. They reference the two million minutes that the students will endure during the last four years of high school before entering a university or the workforce. This documentary follows students in all three countries and compares and contrasts their daily curriculum and what the students value most.
The American school that is documented is Carmel high school. This is just a coincidence and not related to the close proximity of this school. They show that U.S. kids are not working nearly as hard as students in developing countries. This movie shows that American kids are slackers but still receive good grades. They have more opportunities than most other kids around the world and do not work nearly as hard as others. The movie explains that the kids in the United States are spoiled and already rich while the other kids in China and India have to work hard to break out of their caste system.
The students in China and India explain to the film crew that they are studying 24/7 and work harder than American students. They state that students in the United States have more fun than they do and are pushed harder to do better in school. They are driven from the time they are in first grade to strive to be the best. Their motivation comes from the poverty that they are predisposed to. The only way to break the poverty barrier is through getting a successful job that is driven by hard work and dedication while in school.
This documentary gives me mixed emotions on the subject of education systems in the U.S., China, and India. By the time you reach 17 in India, you know what you'll be doing the rest of your life. The U.S. students do not know what they will be doing the rest of their lives but rather see a variety of different jobs that they might have. Opportunity is what this video is about and says that Chinese and Indian kids don’t have them.
I believe that kids will be kids no matter what country they go to school in, and think that U.S. students work just...