Where to Invade Next Page #3

or Styrofoam tray.

Wow, actual real china.

Yeah.

The chefs bring the food to them.

Scallops with a curry sauce.

Wow, and-- and with carrots?

Oh, okay.

And this was just the appetizer.

C'est bon.

French fries.

Oh, oui.

Two times a year

you'll have French fries.

But French is in the wording.

I couldn't find a single

vending machine in the school,

so I smuggled in some contraband.

- Do you drink Coca-Cola?

- No.

You don't-- no?

No Coca-Cola? No?

Coca-Cola? You don't drink--

you don't drink Coca-Cola?

No?

Nobody drinks Coca-Cola?

No.

Here, try this.

Try this.

- No.

- No.

Want to try Coca-Cola?

- It tastes good.

- It's what?

Pretty good.

It's okay?

All right, tell me how you feel

in 15 minutes.

How about a sloppy joe?

Jamais. Never.

- Never?

- Not at all.

On this day,

the children were being served

lamb skewers and chicken

over couscous.

A four-course meal

that included a cheese course

and dessert.

Here's something

I had never seen before.

When does a kid

share his ice cream?

Come on,

you've had a Whopper.

You've snuck somewhere

sometime in your life and had a Whopper.

Well, you haven't lived

till you've had a Whopper.

What's for lunch?

The daughter

of one of our crew members

is a high school student

near Boston.

When she heard we were

filming a school lunch,

she started sending

her mother pictures

of what her school lunch

looked like.

This is what American children

eat for lunch.

Okay, yes,

that looks familiar.

Does that look good to you?

- No.

- No.

We don't know what's inside this.

No, no, no, no.

Yeah.

I know, it's like I'm showing you

photographs

on an episode of "C.S.I." here.

Uh...

You know it's bad

when the French pity you.

What's even more remarkable

is that Chef Montignac

spends less per lunch

than we do

in our schools

in the United States.

And this public school

is not in a wealthy area.

In fact, I got ahold

of a copy of the menu

from one of the poorest schools

in one of the poorest towns in France,

and this is what

they're eating this month.

A filet of cod in a dill sauce.

Fennel and beef stew.

Moussaka.

And a choice between

a caramel or vanilla flan.

Not to mention

there's at least one cheese option

every single day.

It seemed almost unbelievable

that this country,

which provides

free health care for its people,

nearly free day care,

also makes sure

that the school lunches

are fit for a king.

I had to ask myself,

how do the French afford all of this?

Europe, for the past four decades,

has been raising taxes.

Very high income taxes.

- Some higher taxes.

- They're sick of the high taxes.

Grard Depardieu said,

"No more!

I'm outta here."

Here's how much

the average working American

pays in income

and social security taxes.

And those taxes get us

the basic services--

police, fire, roads, water, war,

and bank bailouts.

And here's what the average

French worker pays in taxes.

A little more than we do.

And for paying

just a little bit more,

they, too,

get the basic services,

but they also get

all this extra stuff.

We can get some of that stuff, too,

but we have to pay extra.

And when we pay extra,

we don't call it a tax.

We call it tuition and day care fees

and the nursing home bill

and copays and deductibles

and on and on and on.

We don't call them taxes,

but they are,

and we pay a whole lot more

than the French.

One more thing--

every French paycheck

has a detailed list of where their taxes

are going, line by line.

This is what our paycheck

looks like.

Other than Social Security

and Medicare,

it doesn't say a damn thing.

Maybe if we saw where

our income taxes were going,

we wouldn't let Congress

spend nearly 60% of it

on this.

But the French aren't fighters,

they're lovers.

Sweetheart,

Pep Le Pew loves you...

And if there's one thing

the French know how to do right,

it's passion and desire.

But where do you learn

something like that?

Magical moment?

I thought the whole point of sex ed

when I was in school

was to scare us

from ever having any.

Now, you took a risk by doing something

that society condemns.

Perhaps you didn't realize

some of the penalties involved syphilis.

Syphilis?

Oui?

Yeah, but what about abstinence?

Too risky?

What does she mean by that?

A small high school in West Texas

that does not offer sex education

is dealing with an STD outbreak.

A significant rise in STDs

among Utah teens.

Parents can always

preach abstinence,

but teens, we know,

don't always listen.

- A chlamydia outbreak.

- Chlamydia.

Chlamydia.

Why does Texas continue

with abstinence

education programs

when they don't seem

to be working?

In fact, I think we have

the third highest teen pregnancy rate

in the country,

among all the states.

Abstinence works.

But we are the third highest

teen pregnancy--

we have the third highest

teen pregnancy rate

among all states in the country.

The questioner's point is

it doesn't seem to be working.

I'm gonna tell you

from my own personal life,

abstinence works.

The teen pregnancy rate

in the United States

is more than twice

France's rate,

more than six times Germany's,

and more than seven times

than the Swiss.

Yes, education.

I grabbed a copy

of their high school textbook,

"Lovemaking is Fun,

Volume 1,"

packed up a few

of their school lunches...

and hopped aboard

what they call a train

to a country that really was

number one in education.

Finland is ranked at

or near the top

of having the best-educated

students in the world.

Which left everyone wondering,

"Really? Finland?"

These are the people who gave us

the air guitar championship...

Hello? Hello?

...and the sports

of cell phone throwing

and wife carrying.

These are the geniuses

that cracked the code to good education?

I mean, how is it

that the kids in Finland

are ahead

of the rest of the world?

So, here's what happened.

Back in the day,

Finland's schools sucked

on the level that ours suck on.

When they tested the world's kids,

both Finland and us

were usually about the same,

you know, somewhere down

the list of nations.

But Finland didn't like that,

so they tried some new ideas

and, in no time, Finland shot

to the top of the world.

Their students were number one.

How did they do that?

That was the one question

I wanted an answer to.

And I went straight to see

the enemy's minister of education.

Before I could say anything,

she blurted out their top secret.

They do not have homework.

Wait, so you reduced

the homework you give them at school?

Yes, yes.

They should have more time

to be kids,

to be youngsters, to enjoy the life.

How many hours of homework

did you get last night?

About 10 minutes or something.

- 10 minutes of homework?

- Yeah.

- Maybe 15 minutes or 20 minutes.

- 20 minutes.

- 20 minutes?

- Not much. Yeah.

Well, if I would've

done the homework,

I think it would've been

like 10 minutes, tops.

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