CSPAN Q&A with Robert Compton
Last night the CSPAN Q&A was very interesting. It featured an entrepreneur/venture capitalist Robert Compton, who has taken an interest in education. His thesis is that the current generation of American children and those going forward will not be able to compete with the Chinese and Indian children who are receiving more rigorous education in science and math. Much of the program was centered on a documentary he produced comparing two American high school seniors from Carmel Indiana to their counterparts in India and China. It certainly was though provoking and got the wheels turning. He game down on the time “wasted” in competitive athletics, but did advocate physical education. If you get a chance look at it or download the podcast, it will get you thinking.
Interview
Q&A with Robert Compton
C-SPAN, Q&A
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 204250 - 03/06/2008 - 1:00 - $19.95
| Compton, Robert A. | Filmmaker |
Venture capitalist Robert Compton's travels to India in 2005 and 2006 laid the groundwork for his decisions to author a blog, publish a book called Blogging Through India, and produce a documentary called Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination. Two million minutes is roughly four years, the amount of time high school students have to prepare for life. The documentary compares and contrasts the education experiences of six students; two from each of the countries of India, China, and the United States. It includes statistics on the amount of time spent in the classroom, the influence of the student's parents on their decisions to pursue a certain career, and the degree to which those choices impact their free time during their high school years. Robert Compton talked about his documentary film and the education community's response. Video clips were shown.
posted by Vern Gambetta @ 3/10/2008 08:03:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Vern- By any chance did you see the last story on 60 minutes this past weekend? It was an interview with financier Carl Icahn. When asked about his contempt for CEO's, he said, "I have a metaphor: that the guy that gets in to the company, he moves up the ladder. He's like the fraternity president in college. He's the guy you like. He's always there when you need a buddy. He doesn't make waves. You never know where, you can't ever figure out when he’s studying because he's always at the eating club or fraternity when you go over there. And that's the guy that moves up the ladder in the corporate world." I thought this was funny, because you can say the same thing about many athletic administrators.
Ask Mr. Compton what percentage of Indian or Chinese children take or are scored on those High School Tests, and what percentage of American Children.
Yeah. Thought so.
(To save you the work, in India and China (and a lot of European countries) what we call "High School"--a general education in lots of non-work things aimed at prepping one for College--is not available only to those who test high enough in primary school (or have rich/well connected parents depending on the country).
I wonder what would happen once you took out the scores of those students who wouldn't make it into an Indian/Chinese school. Hmmm?
Yeah. Thought so.
There are a lot of problems with the education system in this country, but I don't think this sort of comparison is legitimate.
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