Two Million Minutes Analysis

Introduction

The education culture varies among every country. From the documentaries “Secondary School” and “Two Million Minutes”, the life of secondary school students in Hong Kong, China, the United States (US) and India differ. In the following paper, comparison between the secondary school life and related social values shown will be discussed.

I. “Well-rounded” Education in different Countries

“Well-rounded” education is always mentioned by the educators for children development in schools. According to the Education Bureau in Hong Kong (2013), “well-rounded” education includes moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic development. With using this concept for teaching, students can learn the knowledge from books and learn

In the documentary “Two Million Minutes”, students have packed schedule with high pressure and they work very hard to attain high marks in the examinations and to get into good university. They put most of the time in studying and would play music in leisure time. In short, China and India think good academic performance as the basic responsibility of students and the requirement of a bright future. One of the obvious example is that parents in India want their daughters to study and learn, so they can get a good job, meet potential partners in workplace, then get married and have a relaxing life. This reflects the strong traditional concept of patriarchy in Indian, which girls should focus on domestic matters.

In Hong Kong and the US, plenty of opportunities are offered by schools and parents allow children to develop their interests freely This implies the concept of democracy in both societies. One big difference between the two places is that the schools in Hong Kong focus on behaviour and attitude and would set school rules about discipline, while those in the US do not. The set of school rules follows the traditional Chinese concept of obedience to teachers and the US stress on the equality between teachers and students. (Littlewood,