Students.

The film 2 million minutes makes the argument that there is a student "epidemic" that is sweeping across the United States. Students are slacking off and as a result risking their entire futures. In contrast it tries to show how countries such as India and China are trying their hardest to be the best: their students study much more than Americans and academics is their #1 priority. This is supposed to make the American audience fearful of their future and dive into their competitive drive to be number 1. 

I felt like the film picked the completely wrong American students to prove their argument. Trying to make slacker out of a guy who is president of his class, writing for the school newspaper, and going to Purdue on a full ride scholarship? What were they thinking? And the other girl they picked with the sparkling 3.94 GPA was no slacker either. They showed them having social lives, but never went into their study methods.

Meanwhile, the students they picked from China and India were shown to be academic superstars. One kid basically said he was a "genius". However in the end, the American students went to the colleges of their choice while the Indian and Chinese students ended up getting rejected and forced to take other options. The film's argument just didn't work for me.

I do think students in America don't have the drive that other students from different countries have. But like Mike Rose's article "I Don't Want to be Average", this might be due to the educational system itself. The same thing is taught and reiterated year after year. The same methods are also used to learn. 1. Do homework 2. Come to class 3. Receive grade. This doesn't promote learning, its just basic bribery. There needs to be more fresh ideas installed into the educational system or we're going to continue feeling like robots.