Two Million Minutes - A Global Examination

Once again, I have to admit my nerdy addiction to C-Span. Early yesterday morning, I caught an interview with the Executive Producer of this documentary. Fascinating!

Please take a minute to watch. It will likely raise questions for you as it did for me. I wish you could have seen the interview which answerered some of the major ones like:

1. Weren't there other American students that could have been selected for this?

2. The ending of the film (not shown in this trailer) seems to justify the American system. Why?

I'm not an instructional design expert nor a public education administrator. However, I do have my own opinion on principles that are needed in education reform. Mainly:

a. At least as much staff and resource support should be given to gifted and talented students as remedial ones. I think we hold a lot of students from reaching their potential by setting the bar and not seeing how far they can reach beyond it.

b. Something has to change with discipline. Teachers and administrators can't be motivated by what will or won't get them sued. Right and wrong exist. Let's bring them back to our schools.

c. Teachers need competition. I support performance pay for exceptional teachers and think tenure and the teacher's unions (in some degree) are aiding the decline of education while substandard or unhappy teachers stay for 20 years just to collect a paycheck.

The funny thing is.. I do still see myself in education ultimately. I should probably start thinking about how to be part of the solution.