TN capitalist looks at US education

The Los Angeles Times today published an interesting story on how Bob Compton, a Memphis venture capitalist, compared the educational systems of India, China and the United States. Results -- students in India and China worked harder, perhaps because they have a stronger incentive.

"Two Million Minutes" focuses on high-achieving students from top schools in Bangalore, Shanghai and Carmel, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. All are impressive, but the American students come across as slackers by comparison.

As the film begins, we hear the voice of Neil Ahrendt, an affable,well-spoken young man and a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, saying:"Occasionally, I do homework."

The clear message is that the Indian and Chinese students work a lot harder. The movie doesn't spend much time on curriculum or "rigor and relevance," the kinds of issues that dominate U.S. education discussions.

The film quotes Vivek Wadhwa, a tech entrepreneur on sabbatical at Duke University, explaining why American students are slipping behind in math and science."The hunger isn't there; the desire isn't there," he says. 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."

Harvard Education Professor TomWagner told the Times:

"We don't challenge kids in schools," he said. "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."