The Clayton High School PTO organized and invited Clayton parents and students to attend a movie screening of “Two Million Minutes: The Documentary” to raise awareness regarding the current state of American education.
This documentary reveals how American students allocate their K-12 years in comparison to Chinese and Indian students. Interestingly, CHS PTO had organized a similar event two years earlier regarding the documentary “Race to Nowhere.” This documentary, in contrast to “Two Millions Minutes,” condemned the insurmountable stress that high school students received due to the college application process. Following the documentary, J.M. Rochester, a Clayton, parent and university educator, gave his remarks regarding “Two Million Minutes” and its message in light of “Race to Nowhere.”
Rochester firmly sided with “Two Million Minutes” in that something needs to be done with the current high school system. The film blatantly points out the growing gap between the performance of high schools students in India and China compared to America. Evidenced by the number of engineers and scientists that China and India produce, Rochester stated America may need a change in direction and emphasis.
Rochester emphasized that there are three main problems that have led America’s degrading educational system: increasing number of distractions, role of parents in the lives of students and the incomparable stress that students faced during the Great Depression era compared to students today.
The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research showed that 15 to 17-year-olds in 2002 and 2003 devoted about three and a half hours a day to TV and other leisure while their average time spend studying was 42 minutes. This statistic shows the growing epidemic known as “laziness” in today’s society. It is certain that technology has rapidly taken over the lives of Americans. The study shows the surprising lack of effort on the part of American students than those in India and China.
The second problem that Rochester emphasized was the role of parents in the lives of students. Rochester stated “parents are on the end of two spectrums; they’re either over-bearing or under bearing.” He criticized the extremity shown by parents in part to taking care of their children. The extremity shown by these parents have produced children that are either very productive or those that are not.
The last problem that Rochester expressed was the incomparable stress students faced during the Great Depression era compared to students today. Sandwiched between two world wars and an economic collapse, Rochester talked about the immense stress students encountered in comparison to students today. Rochester implied that because students had to overcome more challenging barriers, students developed a resiliency and perseverance that students in today’s society lack.
Parents, students, and teachers attended the screening and there seemed to be an overall sense of urgency with respect to the current state of public education.
The movie ended with a summary of how three individual students ended up with respect to going to college. Interestingly, the two students that reside in India and China did not end up at their dream school, while the American student enrolled at Purdue with a full scholarship. Whether one deems the American students enrollment at Purdue a success, only time will tell where American students will be on a global spectrum and where the United States will end up with respective to these rapidly advancing foreign countries.