MY AMERICAN EDUMACATION, PART 49

[defrog]

ITEM: A new documentary, Two Million Minutes, chronicles the senior high school years of two students in India, China and the US to see how they prioritize their time. Results: great if yr from China and India, not so great if yr from the US.

I can’t vouch for how accurate or fair the film is, since two students per country isn’t much of a sample – although there is more than sufficient circumstantial evidence to back up the conclusion that US kids aren’t getting the sort of education you’d expect the richest and most developed nation on Earth to be able to provide.

That said, it’s interesting that the documentary uses the 1983 government report “A Nation at Risk” as a starting point. Basically, that report concluded that if the US didn’t up its game in math and science education, it risked falling behind its global competitors. Twenty-five years and billions of dollars in education reform later, US 10th graders rank 17th out of 30 countries in science and 24th in math, according to the OECD. And grown-ups think the Vietnam war started when the Vietnamese bombed Pearl Harbor, and men and dinosaurs lived together on Noah’s Ark. (Better yet, one such grown-up is possibly leading the country.)

In possibly related news, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston have found that in certain parts of the US, the average life expectancy has dropped drastically.

If yr a woman living in the Deep South or the Midwest, you are especially doomed, apparently, thanks to smoking, obesity and high blood pressure.

Good night.

Dumb and dumber,

This is dF

Comments

[dinopollard.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's pretty accurate. Between No Child Left Behind and Abstinance-Only Sex Education, Bush has done everything possible to destroy the education system in this country. The drop-out rate is either at or almost at 50%, college students are suffering from incredibly predatory loans and being forced to stay in college longer because there aren't enough classes or the schools force more gen-eds or whatever.

Education in this country is a mess.