Two Million Minutes Documentary: Movie Compares U.S. Education With India and China

Two Million Minutes tracks two high achieving students from Carmel, Indiana; two from Bangalore, India; and two from Shanghai, China. The movie title comes from the fact that it takes approximately two million minutes to complete high school. The movie is partially funded by the Broad Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bob Compton is an entrepreneur from Memphis, Tennessee who is on a mission to learn why China and India do so much better educating children in math and science. He made the assumption that others would want this information.

Harvard Screening

Being a graduate of Harvard with an MBA, Compton confidently invited the Harvard Graduate School of Education to view his documentary and give him feedback. They did – but he didn’t receive the reaction he expected. What was the reaction of well-known Harvard professors to Compton’s movie?

Stating the reaction of the Harvard education department was "resistant" would be putting it very mildly. Compton took a beating. One professor stated, "We have nothing to learn from Third World education." [Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2008]

Howard Gardner, well known for his theory on multiple intelligences, criticized Compton for comparing the United States with China where there is no freedom of speech. Gardner did later state, "On the other hand, the movie’s view of what education is, and . . . what it should be, is limited and deserves a response. While excellence in science, engineering and technology are worthy goals, it is equally important to learn about history, citizenship and the arts." [Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2008]

Balancing A Social Life

One point made in the movie was that the two American students seemed concerned about balancing their academic goals with a rich social life. The students from India and China rarely indicated a need for a social life. Their days were spent studying more with very few social activities.

Indian and Chinese Students Work Harder

Indian and Chinese students work harder than American students do. The film quotes a tech entrepreneur on sabbatical at Duke University, Vivek Wadhwa, saying, "The hunger isn’t there; the desire isn’t there. Chinese and Indian kids are a lot more motivated to get into these fields and succeed because they’re fighting starvation, they’re fighting hunger." [Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2008]

Positive Reaction

One Harvard professor of education that had a positive reaction to the film was Tony Wagner. He has written a book to be released this summer, The Global Achievement Gap. Wagner stated, "We don’t challenge kids in schools; we don’t challenge them to think; we don’t challenge them to create. We challenge them to get good enough grades to get into a good enough college." [Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2008] Wagner believes the entire educational system in the U.S. needs to be redone emphasizing innovation and critical thinking.

How can a society begin to overhaul a system reinforced with state guidelines, federal guidelines, teachers’ unions, underpaid teachers, extracurricular emphasis, and social agendas? How can we instill hunger for education?

The copyright of the article Two Million Minutes Documentary in Educational Issues is owned by Barbara Pytel. Permission to republish Two Million Minutes Documentary in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Sep 20, 2008 9:56 AM

Guest :

After listening to Newt Gingrich and Robert Reich last evening in Cupertino, Ca. I am very interested in viewing or reading about the Two Million Minutes; A Documentary. Is there a place I may purchase a copy or would the documentary be in the public library? If anyone knows how I may get a copy please post your comment here. Many thanks, Claudet Webber

Sep 23, 2008 9:02 AM

Guest :

Isn't is sad that we are snobs to learning new ways to teach? When other countries are achieving better, we don't want to know how they are doing it? What's that?

Feb 20, 2009 10:13 AM

Guest :

This documentary is very good in the sense that it does capture the amount of time which students in India and China dedicate to their studies. On average, they are far more diligent about their school work than American students. However, the documentary must also be taken with a grain of salt. We cannot forget that there is one very large difference between the U.S. educational system and those of India and China: In America, there is a genuinely public education. Every child in America is forced to recieve some form of schooling. In China and India, only a select few are taught. American students would be just as dedicated and advanced if we only educated a select group of elite, naturally gifted students. However, in America everyone is given the opportunity to recieve an education, and our resources are therefore divided. By contrast, India and China allow millions of children to go through life without any formal schooling.

Jun 15, 2009 5:39 AM

Guest :

The key issue is that Americans can do a lot to improve the education. Even if Indian "elite" is only 15% of their population, they can still produce over 2 million high achieving graduates every year - comparable to a thousand Harvards.