[Assam] 2 million minutes - threat to US by Indian education? Indian students better?

Sun Dec 28 02:16:55 PST 2008

Hi,

Some may be interested to learn about the guy who made this documentary - videos of why he made over a 2 year period in India, US China.
http://www.youtube.com/user/2MillionMinutes

BIO
 (He has daughters in middle school in the US - getting straight As - meaning getting above 93% in all their subjects - no they don't have any final exams in middle or elementary school in the US -- only in high school they have final exams at the end of each quarter/semester).

http://robertacompton.com/biography.html
Bob Compton is a Harvard MBA after BA from some college - and has done well for himself in business - worked as computer engineer himself (after BA? - was that an engineering degree?) Maybe not - but shows that he can adapt himself to the situation at hand - and thats what he wants America to do. Rise to the "Third World Challenge" http://www.2mminutes.com/

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Threat perception?
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10 yearolds in the US read about 10 threats to the US/challenges for OBAMA (I think in TIME magazine edition for kids TIME for Kids) -- one of them is the threat of India and China  - other threats are terrorism etc. What threat from India - they can take away your jobs. I think that is too much education for 10 yearolds. 

It is good to create a situation of crisis to energize the troops to action but fearmongering (like in 1983/84 Sputnik report on education - A Nation at Risk  -- after Soviet Union launched Sputnik space craft) Is India causing a similar risk? Will that lead to arms race -- or just jobs race.

It reminds me of the tensions within various regions of India -- esp for railway central/federal govt jobs -- each state's (some) residents want that noone from any other state be allowed to participate in the recruitment process -- leading to fights in Maharasthra and also nearer home. Some people see it as an opportunity to create fear and exploit the situation to suit their ends.

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US kids bright?
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In that light the documentary -- which does not purport to be based on rigorous research but claims to be an authority on Indian/US education (we all do - to an extent , though). It is an effort by a concerned parent who perhaps did not pay enough attention to other kids who graduated from a US school and went to MIT or Harvard or UPenn or Carnegie Mellon etc or to some magnet school-- if he had studied them - he would have found  that there are three tracks for US kids. 
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Indians ahead?
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1. Regular 2. Honors  3. GT (Gifted and Talented) --this is some good govt run schools. Maybe it is not so in the private schools his kids go to. 

In 8th grade/class some kids study pre-alegbra incl signed numbers, percents etc(regular track )
Honors track study (algebra 1), GT track study geometry. 

Maybe his own kids are at the lower track (though getting above 93% in that track) - so look bad when compared with Indian curriculum.

In India all have to study the same stuff -- passing percent in India is 33% --and in the US it is 66%. grading system is quite different - which is better ? thats another issue.

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School comparisons:
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If he had really wanted to compare US and Indian students -- he should have come to me -- I would have introduced him to some students of http://www.tjhsst.edu/  . They don't goof off -- none of the 1600 students in the school - the top ranked school in the US.

To create sensation - it is easy to compare apples with oranges -- take some top students in India and China and compare them with some "average" students in the US from some elite boarding school students from Groton or hilps Academy Andover etc  who are not focused on science/math. Groton students should be compared to India's elite DOON School school or Mayo College kids - who believe in overall development -- and they are considered the top Indian schools - by Indians!!

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3 years US chemistry better than 5 years Indian chemistry?
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In India as I read somewhere and have experienced personally - like most Indian students -  that there is lot of repetition of what you study. I studied algebra from 6th to 12 grade -- 6 years -- in the US the students study only 2-3 years algebra. But nearly 30% of Indian curriculum is repeated in the next grade.  Some repetition is good - like geometry rules are easy to forget (by US students too). But overall US students can study AP chemistry (college level) [in their 3rd or 4th year of chemistry-incl middel school science] much more advanced than what Indian students study in 6 years chemistry (grades 6-12). Same for other subjects.

I think I gave more detail here about curriculum comparison than Mr Compton did  in his entire 2 million minutes documentary.

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Compton's school and college experience :
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He attended a rare private college (and school) based on Christian values . It starts from kindergarten and goes on to undergrad college - he studied till he completed college -- thats my guess. http://www.prin.edu/

It doesn't seem like a top magnet school focused on science math. I gather his kids go to a similar school. hmmmm

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Has anyone seen the documentary? -- I saw the youtube clips on Mr Compton's page.  It was screened at Harvard Grad School of Edu - and my professor later asked for my comments. I had just seen a few clips. 

Any comments?

Umesh

--- On Thu, 25/12/08, umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com>
> Subject: AP rural laborer cracks IIT video, Indian students better?
> To: assam at assamnet.org
> Date: Thursday, 25 December, 2008, 4:16 AM
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBZgrXRad6s
> quite inspiring - even if he got in thru affirmative
> action/reservation/quota (I don't know ). It shows how
> Andhra youth view education -- US is full of Andhra/Telugu
> engineering students - 200 in my apartment complex (till
> June).
> 
> I was actually watching 2 million minutes - about the
> children of India's tech elite in India's elitest
> tech city Bangalore city and are causing nightmares to some
> Silicon Valley based parents.
> http://www.indianmathonline.com/principles.html
> 
> Personally I do not think Indian elite students study 2 or
> 3 grade/class levels higher than staright A private school
> American students of US venture capitalists ( and I teach
> students from some of the top schools in the US - even from
> the best one )
> 
> Umesh Sharma
> 
> Washington D.C. 
> 
> 1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
> 
> Ed.M. - International Education Policy
> Harvard Graduate School of Education,
> Harvard University,
> Class of 2005
> 
> http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
> 
> http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )
> http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
> 
> 
> 
> http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/