Two million minutes. That’s about how long most students in the world spend in high school. About 4 years.
Two Million Minutes is also a documentary about how 6 kids in China, India, and the U.S. spend their 2 million minutes of high school.
I haven’t yet seen the 54-minute documentary, but I’ve heard rave reviews from those who have. (I’m either going to order a personal copy or set up a group screening – not sure yet.)
In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed reading the documentary’s blog, where I came across a post about a New Year’s visit to a government school in India. Here’s an excerpt:
Half of India’s urban children are educated in Government schools, which are remarkably similar to US urban public schools – strong teacher’s union, lower teacher qualifications, worn out facilities, lighter curriculum, lower academic attainment and little parental involvement. Indian private schools are substantially better in every respect.
The key difference between India’s urban schools and America’s would be the children – these Indian children come from the slums of Bangalore yet all are in clean simple uniforms. Most work 2-3 hours (as laborers) before school and 2-3 hours after school. The school is a good bit rowdier than a private school but when I walked in the classroom every child jumped to attention and said “good day, sir.”
Click here to read the rest of the short post…
Question: Have you seen this documentary? What did you think?
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