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A documentary filmed in September 2007, after a small-scale screening, gradually stepped out of the academic and educational circles in early 2008, and began to arouse heated discussion among the American media and the public. The film is "Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination".
What kind of movie is Two Million Minutes: A Global Survey? Why has it attracted people's attention in America?
The so-called "two million minutes" is generally four years' study time for senior high school students in the United States (four years in senior high school in the United States, if compared with China, is roughly equivalent to grade three to grade three in China). The filming of the film lasted nearly 20 months. The film is about an hour long. It tracks and compares the study and life of two high school graduates in the United States, China and India, trying to explore the learning situation of middle school students in the three countries, how the special status and standards of education in their respective cultures are accepted by schools, families and students, and how students, families and schools view the competition in the era of knowledge economy.
American student Brittan, 17 years old, is a senior high school student. She especially wants to be a doctor, but at the same time, she wants to join a sorority. Nair Arendt, 18 years old, is the monitor of his class and a member of the school football team.
The film says that these American middle school students have completely different attitudes towards learning from those in China and India.
/kloc-Apova Uppala, a 0/7-year-old Indian student, will attend a pre-university remedial class on Saturday in addition to her normal study. She wants to be an engineer, which she calls the "safest" job in India.
In Shanghai, 17-year-old Jin is preparing for the international mathematics competition. He is the best student in mathematics in the school. He hopes to enter a famous university with a good math major.
In the film, we can see that while students in China and India are studying hard, good students in the best schools in the United States are either looking in the mirror, playing computer games or watching the TV series Grey's Anatomy. It is not difficult to draw an intuitive conclusion from the film: Compared with Indian and China students, American students really waste too much time. What this film tells people directly is that the United States is rapidly being left behind by the rest of the world!
American middle school students lag behind =
Will America lose its competitiveness in the future?
Although the protagonist of the movie "Two Million Minutes" is a middle school student, the content and object it wants to talk about are obviously not middle school students.
When the film came out, it caused a heated discussion. Due to the tendentious thinking of filmmakers and photographers, the documentary itself represents one side of the debate. They think: This movie is a wake-up call for America. Robert Compton, the producer of this film, said that the simple fact is that the education level around the world has left behind the United States.
Finnish students won the championship in a competition, and the United States can say nothing. But the problem now is that American high school graduates are far behind China and India in their studies-the two most populous countries in the world, with rapid economic development and culture meeting future intellectual challenges-which must be taken seriously. What is even more worrying, he said, is that few Americans realize that the combined population of India and China is about 2.3 billion, and there are 400 million high school graduates, while that of the United States is only 50 million. "Our understanding of the cultures of these two countries is outdated, and we must step up changes." America's future economy depends on it. In other words, 2 1 century is the era of knowledge economy, and today's middle school students represent the future of the country. Whether they are excellent or not represents whether the country will have stronger competitiveness in the future from a certain angle.
And those who oppose this film have the same clear-cut views. After the film premiered at Harvard University on June 5438+065438+1October 2, 2007, some teachers and students of the College of Education made it clear that although the film aroused people's anxiety, it lacked convincing evidence. Most viewers think that the American education system is superior to China and India, because it doesn't put too much pressure on students and doesn't force them to memorize. Just because American middle school students lag behind China and India, it is unconvincing and unconvincing in theory to think that the United States will lose its strong competitiveness in the future.
The educational crisis in the United States: not groundless
However, the educational crisis that Americans feel around the world is not groundless.
On June 5438+ 10, 2002, US President Bush promulgated the No Child Left Behind Act, which is an important measure of American education reform. According to relevant research, the implementation of the Act has had a good impact on basic education in the United States. In particular, the school attaches importance to children's training in mathematics and reading, which increases students' study time and has obvious effects. But this actually shows from one side that there are fatal weaknesses in the basic education stage in the United States, especially in mathematics and reading, so it is necessary to supervise and improve it through national legislation.
But things didn't end there. According to The New York Times, on June 5438+1October, 2008, an organization asked 33 multiple-choice questions to American teenagers aged 1200 17 by telephone interview, all of which were the most basic historical and literary questions. The test results shocked educators and the public. For example, less than half of people don't know the exact time of the American Civil War. About14 people think that Columbus arrived in the New World after 1.750, and the correct answer should be 1.492. The organization believes that the survey results show that American teenagers show "extreme ignorance" about history and literature knowledge.
This survey is aimed at the No Child Left Behind Act, which makes public schools in various states pay too much attention to mathematics and reading, while ignoring subjects such as history and literature. This statement is also supported by the survey data of a research team in Washington, DC. After investigation, they found that after President Bush promulgated the bill, about 62% public schools in the United States increased their math or reading training time by about three hours a week. Obviously, this will squeeze students' time to study other subjects.
Anyone who has been to the United States or knows something about American society and culture knows that Americans are very worried and always have psychological preparation and practical preventive measures for possible dangers and crises. When a problem has not attracted the public's attention, they tend to exaggerate and alarmist, and their starting point is undoubtedly to attract the public and the government's attention to a problem, and even make their own suggestions and opinions the origin or motivation of legislation.
Strictly speaking, "Two Million Minutes: A Global Survey" is not a rigorous academic documentary. Its so-called "global survey" is only a survey of the United States, China and India, far from being a "global survey", but it can still reveal the film's anxiety about whether the United States can maintain a strong development momentum in the future, and even whether it can continue to become the world's number one power. (Guo Yingjian)
Comments: American movies have also sounded the alarm for education in China.
As an educator, I am not complacent because I saw the conclusion of the film that students in China will be in the leading position in the future, let alone think that our education system and education effect are better than those in the United States. On the contrary, this film should also be worthy of our deep reflection and in-depth study on China's education, education system and problems in education.
I have been teaching in colleges and universities for 20 years and have been paying attention to the reform and development of higher education in China and the United States. Now, I feel more and more that most of the time, the crux of our higher education actually lies in basic education.
When comparing the educational situation between China and the United States, there are "one view" and "one phenomenon" that deserve our attention.
This widely circulated view is that China's basic education is better than that of the United States. This view is not only recognized by academic experts and scholars, but also very popular among the people.
A well-known phenomenon is that in China, students are very busy and hard at the basic learning stage. From primary school to high school graduation, in this 12 years, they can't stop studying and living, otherwise the consequences of not working hard can be imagined by anyone in China. However, once you enter the university, you can basically say that you have entered the safe. As long as you behave well, you will be guaranteed to graduate smoothly and get your diploma.
However, if you compare the United States, it is just the opposite. Compared with students in China, American students' basic learning can be described as "free, relaxed and happy", which is generally not wrong. Once in college, American students study harder and harder than China students, which is completely beyond the imagination of China college students.
The above phenomenon deserves our attention and in-depth study. At the same time, we must pay attention to that even though we admit that our basic education is better than that of the United States, we should not forget, nor should we forget, that the basic education stage should not only give students the function of knowledge storage, but also cultivate students' rich imagination and critical thinking ability. The latter is what China lacks most in basic education and even higher education.
Since 1978, the education reform in China has been going on for 30 years. Today, 30 years later, we still have to admit a sad fact: China's basic education is basically based on rote learning, which is extremely beneficial to those students who are good at rote learning, but it is basically a killer for those students who are flexible, imaginative and creative. The most serious consequence of this educational model is exposed in higher education: our college students have lost their imagination and innovative spirit.
June 5438 +2007 10, Drew Foster, the new president of Harvard university, used such a title: "let our most challenging imagination fly!" -Isn't this the spirit of innovation and creation?
In recent years, higher education has also been advocating innovative education. Just think about those students who have gone through 12 years of rote learning training: as far as most of them are concerned, how far can they go on the road of innovation? How difficult it is to reverse or change the thinking habits that they have basically formed in their adolescence, that is, the formation period of their personality and thoughts, within four or five years!
The producer of Two Million Minutes said: This film is a wake-up call for American and American education. In my opinion, this is also a wake-up call for education in China and China.