It was over dinner in Bangalore that Bob Compton began to suspect something was deeply amiss in the way America educates its young.
Compton, a successful venture capitalist, was meeting with some of the Indian software engineers he employed. He soon found himself engaged in "the most interesting conversations I've ever had."
He had expected math and science nerds. But they also knew more about history, geography and literature than most Americans he knew.
"I said to them, 'How'd you get this way?' " he recalled. "They said, 'Well, at school.' "
That conversation launched Compton, 52, of Memphis, Tenn., on a mission. As both an entrepreneur and the father of 14- and 16-year-old girls, he wanted to know what schools in other countries were doing that American schools weren't, and why the United States performed so miserably on international student comparisons.
The result was "Two Million Minutes," a one-hour documentary comparing the educational experiences of six students: two Americans, two Indians and two Chinese.
The movie, in (very) limited release, begins with the premise that the high school years span roughly 2 million minutes.
How is that time spent?
Compton discussed the film, partially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation, over breakfast recently in Beverly Hills.
Although the documentary has not been picked up for TV or broad release, he was upbeat about the effect it was having, mostly through college screenings and DVD sales.
But something was bugging him. It was a discussion that had taken place after he screened his film at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
"I took a brutal beating," he said.
Compton, who has run or founded several technology and medical firms, has an MBA from Harvard and thought he was on home turf.
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Academics resist
But one faculty member, Compton recalled, told him that "we have nothing to learn from Third World education." Another, renowned education theorist Howard Gardner, took him to task for comparing the U.S. with China.
"His point was: How can you have a great educational system when you don't have freedom of speech?" Compton said. Compton saw the remark as missing the point: America may not have anything to learn from China's one-party political system, but it might want to know why Chinese students do better in math and science.
