One to One with Bill Goodman:
Bob Compton
premiered September 14, 2008
Bob Compton discusses a documentary film comparing three countries’ educational systems and outlines ideas for reforming American schools on this edition of One to One with Bill Goodman.
Compton, a venture capital investor, was the executive producer of Two Million Minutes, a film about how the three superpowers of the 21st century—China, India, and the United States—are preparing their students for the future. Named for the number of minutes in one’s life during four years of high school, the documentary follows six students, a boy and a girl from each country, to find out how they allocate their time during their senior years. Along the way, it seeks clues to what many are calling a crisis for U.S. schools regarding chronically low scores in math and science.
It was his business interests that sparked Compton’s interest in global competitiveness in education, he says. He noticed that the companies he invested in were increasingly sending their high-wage, high-talent technical jobs to India and China. After visiting schools in India and speaking to teenagers the same age as his daughters, Compton realized that high school students in the U.S. are two to three years behind their Indian peers in math, physics, world history, and many other subjects.
The factors that contribute to U.S. students falling behind, he says, include time spent watching television, the length of the school year, athletics, and the number of activities in a typical American student’s schedule.
In his One to One interview, Compton offers some possible solutions to making American students more competitive in the global market and explains why education should be a major issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.
