American Reputations

No, I didn't get a chance to watch all of 2 Million Minutes, and I didn't read "For Once, Blame It On The Students." No, I'm not a telepathic genius which, therefor, means I don't know what is expected from me in this post. No, I'm not trying to be quiet while my brother, Max, is sleeping on the other end of the couch. Yes, I do need to be right back because I'm going to grab some food. NUM NUM. And yes, I do think America needs to understand its reputation. Allow me to explain. In 2 Million Minutes (I watched it last year in World History) Americans are compared to students in India and China. I feel that the video is a stab at American culture. Maybe in China and India, being extremely smart is the norm and having school dominate social life is expected but, America is different. The colleges that students are dying to get in to are the colleges that not only require borderline perfect grades but also a flawless community service record and abundant extracurriculars. How are we supposed to study and do homework as much as the other countries do when our requirements aren't purely school inclusive? I don't think that we, the citizens of the U.S.A, see ourselves as slacking or lazy but, I don't doubt that that is how we are perceived by those in other countries such as China or India. We don't recognized the difference because that is all we've ever known. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," there are more examples of how America has accepted and conformed to being mediocre. No one should want to be average; one should have enough confidence to believe that he/she can be better than average. At the school Mike Rose attends, he is placed in the lower of two curriculums. The fact that there even are two curriculums shows that America has lowered its standards. We are saying "it's ok to not try hard, we've got an app for that." By no means is this saying that I'm ashamed of America. Not at all. I just feel that we don't understand how we are perceived by others.