According to a new documentary, American high school students need to reshape their attitudes toward math and science in order to keep up with technologically advancing countries.
Film producer Bob Compton presented his documentary, "Two Million Minutes: A Documentary Film on Global Education," Tuesday in the Art and Journalism building.
The documentary compared the study habits of two students each from Carmel High School in Carmel, St. Paul's English School in Bangalore, India, and Shanghai Nanyang Model High School in Shanghai.
Compton said he was inspired to create the documentary after a 2005 visit to an Indian school. He asked a classroom of 5- to 6-year-old students what the children wanted to be when they grew up, and most of the answers included science and math-related careers, such as engineering, he said.
Compton received the same results in a Chinese classroom, he said; however, in a similar American classroom, students answered with careers such as professional athlete and rock star.
"I think the issue is less a school issue and more of a cultural issue," Compton said. "Kids reflect what our society rewards. Our society is athletically, not academically, oriented. If you want to be on the cover of the newspaper, do you study hard for calculus or practice to be quarterback of the football team?"
Rohit Sridharan and Apoorva Uppala, former St. Paul's students and documentary subjects, answered the audience's questions about Indian attitudes toward education, study habits and their country's economy after the presentation.
Uppala, now a student at the DS College of Engineering in Bangalore, said she spent eight hours in school, three hours with private tutors and two to three hours at home studying every day during her senior year of high school in preparation for the country's top engineering schools.
Sridharan, who now attends Bangalore's BMS College of Engineering, said he enjoys playing soccer and singing with his friends, but career paths in sports and music are not emphasized much in Indian culture because they are seen as high-risk jobs, he said.
"If there are 10 people who, say, want to be a journalist, there will be two who have good enough skills," he said. "People who know they're good might go ahead, but more often you'll see someone saying 'I'm not good enough' and getting out of it and going back into engineering."
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