I hadn’t heard of this film until my dearest Mason asked if I would like to go to it. It was only showing one day at one theatre and he was going for extra credit. It looked pretty interesting. A comparison of how high school students spend their time in America, India, and China. Looked like your average USA bashing film, so I went for it. The film follows 6 students, each the top of their class in America, India, and China. The American students are your typical losers who do homework and projects the night before and spend all their time watching T.V. while still getting into the colleges of their choice. The foreign students, however, are portrayed as students who spend all of their time studying and practicing to be the best out of everyone. They were all very interesting people. But the film made them seem like they were machines who worked towards science and math 24/7. I consider this fairly inaccurate. First of all, it only sampled the very top students. If you looked at the average student, a better comparison could have been made, considering most of the people in the theater were not in the top 2% of their class like the people in the film. However, I do think the film presented a very good point, just not all together correct. From the way I see it, China and India are growing nations that are trying to reach the same level as the US. Engineering and sciences are the big fads in those countries, so of course that is what students are striving for. It isn’t that the US has a failing teaching system. It’s that India and China are trying to catch up with us, not necessarily overtake us. In America, we have more choices and more freedoms towards what we can do when we grow up, where as in China and India, it’s this, or nothing.Well, not NOTHING. But if you want to make money and do something useful in those countries, you don’t really have a choice. All together, it was a very well put together film. If you’re going into science or engineering, watch out. I recommend this to everyone. It is very enlightening and well worth the money.
For more info on the film, please visit http://www.2mminutes.com/ .
