education

I believe that the most important arguments made in "2 million minutes", "I just want to be average", and "For once, blame the students" were on the topics of incentive and culture. In the documentary, Apoorva says she wants to get rich. It seems like all of the asian students are pressured by their parents to do well in school. My parents want me to "get a life". I am beginning to see their point.
Daniel Pink's speech, "Pay for Performance" highlights the importance of intrinsic motivation in business environments. (You have to watch the video to understand what I'm saying about it. http://2mm.typepad.com/usa/2009/10/daniel-pinks-insights-on-pay-for-performance.html ) It would be so awesome if we had "fedex days" at school. They would help students to become interested in what they learn about every day. The candle experiment shows the importance of thinking outside the box and never using extrinsic motivation in an innovative environment. So, it is kind of ironic that east indians look up to Bill Gates (an innovative and intrinsically motivated person), but they are motivated by money and parental standards.
It seems like both American and Asian students have an unbalanced view of education. Americans favor sports to the extreme, while Asians desire knowledge above all else. American culture supports an unbalanced view with "Ferris Beuler's day off", "the Simpsons", and the old tv show "Recess". Peer pressure here deals mostly with sports and physical appearance, while in Asia students desire to be the best in the class. If American and Asian cultures merged, both would benefit by becoming more balanced.