This is a great movie, at least it makes me do want to say something.
Three possibilities about the American education system: 1. The situation is bad---a) we want to fix it but failed, b) we don't want to fix it but pretend we do; 2. The situation is not bad but we are told that it is bad---a) to criticize the government, b) for self-benefits; 3. The situation is bad but not that bad---a) to criticize the government, b) to get more attention on this issue.
I don't know which is true. Not saying the American education situation is perfect, but at least the movie did not persuade me that the situation is as terrible as it claims.
I admit that I may be unconsciously biased on this issue, because I am currently study in the US and the bad situation of American education system will frustrate me. I also admit that this movie is great in showing problems of the public education system with a strong envocation of sympathy, and I believe these problems exist. However, I personally do not like arguments without opposite opinions, objective data from reliable standards, or critical thinking: what's the difficulty level of those ability test? What's the criteria of "worst school" or "bad teacher"? What's the reason for the difficulties in changing the situation? To be honest, as far as I know, Chinese students behave much better in studying, with even less governmental investiment on education, why? If money is not the only issue, why the movie keeps focusing on money? Besides, the movie focus too much on only several persons' opinions, which I do not think are persuasive enough for me.
In China, education workers criticized the Chinese system of failling in letting students think critically. However, we do have the ability. A six-year-old cannot have as much critical thinking as a ten-year-old students because of the lacking in life experience. As a result, if the investment on education increases without any improvement on students' ability of reading and maths. There are two possible explanation: 1. the money is wasted----find out how and why; 2. the standards for evaluation are not valid. It is okay to make changes, but what are the possible changes, what are the possible by-effects, and what are the backups?
I doubt that people criticize public school because they prefer to believe that their money on private school is worthy; I don't want to sound mean but I think some people may unfairly blame most of their failures on education. By the way, in China, students do not have the freedom to chooce their classes, and the only duty of a child is to study well. In the US, I have seen so many students take easy classes, because they have the freedom to do so, they have the rights to be not stressed. On the other hand, now some Chinese people even think that the stability of American society is on the basis of its education, which may lead to elitism.
Again, I don't want to be mean, but if American people do not want nerdy children as Chinese people do, there is no need to complain that the education system doesn't ensure the studying ability of every child.
By the way, I do love nerds.
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