Does U.S. education fall short?

As a new parent, I've got a few years to go before I'll need to start worrying about schools. I don't claim to be an academic, and I certainly wasn't an overachiever in high school. My parents weren't the typical "make all As on your report card" Chinese parents. But I do worry about the state of the U.S. education system.

There's been a ton of press about the pressures many Asian, and Asian-American children face in academic environments...and that's also a fair statement for many non-Asian children across the country, especially in the Northeast. I don't want to turn this into a political discussion, but I wanted to share a Wall Street Journal story - "Are Hard-Working Chinese Kids A Model for American Students?" - that presents a high level comparison of U.S. school/study habits with those of Chinese and Indian kids. "Beautiful Country" is a column that explores American business life and culture from a native Chinese perspective. The author, Li Yuan, is a talented and insightful writer - be sure to check out her stuff.

Here's a video clip that published with the story from a documentary called "2 Million Minutes," which followed students in the U.S., India and China to show how they spent their four years of high school -- which works out to about two million minutes.



A fascinating discussion, and one that will only continue to evolve in the competitive and globalized environment in which we live. Got any thoughts or experiences you'd like to share? Let us know, and we'll pull it together and publish on a future post.