THE "CRISIS" OF U.S. EDUCATION

The 'crisis' of U.S. education

By Walt Gardner

Published: Monday, January 14, 2008

A new one-hour documentary, "Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination," is being screened in states with presidential primaries this winter in the hope of making educational quality in America a marquee issue.

Ordinarily, the disinformation contained in the film could be written off as just another political strategy to mold public opinion. But the stakes are too high this time to let the matter rest.

"Two Million Minutes" focuses on the lives of six talented students, two each from the United States, India and China. It purports to show how the casual attitudes of the American students, compared with those of their overseas counterparts, pose a clear and present danger to America's economic future.

Both the Indian and Chinese students go far beyond their assigned school work to advance their future career plans, while the American students are unfocused and their parents disengaged.

But no evidence is presented to support the argument about the superiority of schools in India and China. The fact is that neither country has ever taken part in the tests of international competition that are routinely cited as proof of educational quality.

Nevertheless, the documentary has been enthusiastically embraced by "Ed in '08," an organization formed by Eli Broad and Bill Gates, two of the most important philanthropists in American public education, to push education high on the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.

The trouble with this alarmist view is that it's nothing new. To understand why, it's necessary to rewind to March 24, 1958, when Life magazine devoted its cover feature to an uncannily similar story. It showed side-by-side photos of two high school juniors - a dour Alexei Kutzkov in Moscow and a beaming Stephen Lapekas in Chicago. Their opposing demeanors were meant to exemplify their respective countries' contrasting state of education.

The Russian was shown involved in complicated physics experiments and reading aloud from Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie," while the American was photographed rehearsing for the school's musical play and walking his girlfriend home after school. The contrast was supposed to explain why the United States was headed for certain economic disaster. As simplistic as it was, it turned out to be amazingly successful in creating anxiety.

But it took the publication of "A Nation At Risk" in April 1983 to ratchet up the manufactured threat. The first page of the report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education engaged in scare tactics rarely seen in a government report when it proclaimed, "If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

The report went on to warn that America's prominence in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation is being threatened by competition throughout the world. It based its bleak view largely on scores on international standardized tests.

But this test score thesis failed to pass muster when Japan's economy tanked in 1990, while the U.S. economy in 1991 entered the longest period of economic prosperity in its history. If America's mediocre public schools were the culprit, then where did all the entrepreneurial talent come from during this era? And why did the vaunted Japanese educational system play an insignificant role in stemming the country's recession?

In fact, Japan's economy to this day is still lethargic and an increasing concern, according to a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal of Jan. 7. Yet its schools continue to be considered among the best in the world, even as fewer big companies now hire workers full-time upon graduation.

Singapore's Education Minister understood the difference between test scores and future success. In an interview last year in Newsweek, he said: "We both have meritocracies. America's is a talent meritocracy; ours is an exam meritocracy. There are some parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well - like creativity, a sense of adventure, ambition. Most of all, America has a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority."

Despite the disconnect between educational quality and economic health, the matter curiously draws little media attention. When criticisms of American schools are made, they are played up. But when rebuttals follow, they are played down.

In the final analysis, the only thing that has significantly changed in the gloomy scenario is the actors. In 1958, the villain was Russia. In 1990, it was Japan. In 2008, it is India and China.

That's why "Two Million Minutes" has to be viewed with a healthy skepticism. Its script is certainly intriguing, but it's little more than a modified rehash of what we've seen too often before. And like its predecessors, the latest version is over the top.

Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California.