Hey all! At this point in my high school career I have had the "opportunity" to watch the documentary 2 Million Minutes. During both of these "opportunities" I learned that Americans are slacking big time and that we need to up our games. According to the movie, Americans are especially slacking in the areas of math and science compared to the our Asian acquaintances.
Did anyone notice how the people interviewed in two million minutes for our Asian counterparts were the top in their country? The Chinese boy, Xiaoyuan, interviewed was a freaking genius, even in Asian standards. He was with in the top ten math students in his country! That is saying something! At the same time, the documentary interviewed two pretty great students from America, but not one of our top ten students; thus you cannot compare the American student, Neil, to the math whiz, Xiaoyuan. The directors of this documentary really utilized various logical fallacies. Besides being a hasty generalization by saying that ALL Americans are like Neil and ALL Chinese students are like Xiaoyuan, it is a faulty analogy because you cannot compare the best in one country with an above average student in another country. That just does not work. It is like comparing the best on one team to an average player on another team. Another apparent logical fallacy utilized was cherry picking. The directors only used certain facts about America's slacking math and science industry... what about all the other subjects and majors? Surprisingly, there is more to success then just excelling at math and science.
By the end of the documentary, I noticed that both the Americans reached their gals, while the Asians did not. This shows that there is more to success then just school work. Americans are definitely more well rounded, we have other priorities besides just school. Personally, school is my number one priority, but it is not my ONLY priority, unlike in China and India where the documentary made it seem school was the only item on their list to do. Besides school, I have to make time for sports, volunteering, more sports, and hanging out with my family and friends. As the end of the documentary explains, Americans are more well-rounded. I think that is a good thing because there is more to life than just schoolwork. As a teenager, we need to live for the moment and enjoy these years while we still can before we have to become an adult and accept even more responsibilities.
As i read the article, For Once Blame the Students, I agreed with most of it until I read I Just Wanna Be Average. It is sometimes the students fault if they don't succeed because teachers can only take you so far but they cannot make one learn if they don't want to. Yet, it is the teacher's job to TEACH, and that is what they get paid to do, and if they aren't at least putting a substantial effort into helping the students learn, then they should have never gone into teaching. I know some students that come to school only because they have to show up, not because they want to get anything out of it. It is ashame because they have so much potential. If only one teacher would have come through to them like Mr. Macfarland did to Mike Rose in I Just Wanna Be Average, then those "slacker" students could have become something big. Yet, no teacher put enough effort into helping those students. I am not trying to blame the teachers because yes it is the students fault for not trying to learn, but some of them have never received the chance to shine and become more than just the below average student that they have been expected to be.
I completely agree that many of my fellow AP students have fallen victim to the grade curse. All we care about is keeping our perfect 4.0 GPA or keeping it as high as possible. In someways this is a good thing because we are trying to meet the expectations that either our parents have set for us or we have set for ourselves. With expectations comes goals, and with goals comes pursuit and with pursuit comes success. Without expectations, no one would attempt to achieve success. They would be okay with just being the average Joe or even being less than average. Personally, expectations have helped me become what I am today. Along with the high expectations I have for myself, my parents have high expectations for me. Although that can be annoying at times, it makes me want to succeed and not let them down. I think everyone needs that one person who expects a lot of them, and those that do not have that one person are the ones that are okay with settling for just average. My challenge for everyone is not to be satisfied with just being average.
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