This video shows how Indian and American kids spent 2 million minutes (the time it takes to go through high school, I think). I've been worried for years over the state of American education (but then again, I went to a public school in Mississippi), and this video seems to say my worries are valid.
What do you think?
2 comments:
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a very strong ethic towards education. They know that education is the ticket out of the ghetto.
Continental Europe is very similar, though not often paraded as such. The UK seems to be heading towards the US model. Trendy lefty politicians create an environment of dumbing down. Yet even when India (etc) are socialist, they major on education. So did the liar Blair, here. Only he... lied.
That's an interesting topic. I've found the website of the film and I'm going to have a read through it in the following days.
I've no direct experience of the US education system, but I remember a girl back in high school, who had studied in the States for the first 2 years and once back in Italy, struggled a lot with very basic notions and found the load of assignments too heavy, up to ask her parents to complain with the school. We found it odd: as much as we all thought there was too much to study (when you're 16 you don't want to spend your afternoons at home studying), we also knew it was the way it had to be and that the amount of work had decreased hugely since our parents' high scool days.
I've studied in China and I found them very driven and focused, however I thought myself lucky to not having to go through such an educational system. I found it too much based on mnemonic studies.
Having said that, I think one point that changes a lot on the approach to study is family. I've been very lucky to have a family that not only wanted me to do well at school, but also believed that education is something that has not to be left to school only. School can give you the base to build upon it, but then you need family to help you growing: my mum and dad would always check how I was doing at school, wanted to know the topics I enjoyed the most, get me books or magazine about it. It made me more curious about what's out there.
Nowadays I'm worried about the Italian school system: we've got a public school system and the fundings have been heavily cut in the past 10 years (up to the point some of the buildings are literally falling into pieces) and if you cut on investing in your children's future, you basically kill your country's future with it.
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