For my source detective posting, I was posed with the question of finding reviews of the educational documentary \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d. Initially, I read the ones found on the official \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d site and found that they were all in praise of the documentary. While personally I found the movie incredibly movie, this seemed too one-sided. Upon further research, I found that many of the other reviews found the movie overly dramatic and meant to incite panic about the national education problems.<\/p>\n
Trip Gabriel\u2019s review of the documentary focuses on the positive effects the documentary may have yet does so without attempting to \u201csell\u201d the movie out to the public. Coming from The New York times, I initially felt it would be a very objective and credible review. With further reading, I found that the greatest element of credible research he comes away with is the fact that the documentary achieved national recognition without a major ad campaign or large-scale distribution. The fact that the movie didn\u2019t need to self-sell itself and still was adopted as credible on a national scale demonstrates it\u2019s incredible impact.<\/p>\n
Another positive review I found was Cynthia Joyce\u2019s review from NBC news. The reason I chose this one was because rather than focusing on the recognition the documentary gained in the country, she focused on the message. She does mention the enthusiasm students and others had for seeing and taking about the documentary. However while doing so, she created a clear picture of the goal of the documentary: to raise awareness about the race toward \u201cover-credentialism\u201d and the effects of the pressure it creates.<\/p>\n
After finding two very positive review of the documentary, I searched for a contrasting view. Jay Mathews of The Washington Post provides a very overt critique of the inaccuracies of the documentary. The focus of his critique is on the fact that the documentary doesn\u2019t focus enough on the actual facts of the issue and rather the places a focus on the emotional problems that take place. While this may be true, the view may be short sighted because the issue of schooling can\u2019t be analyzed purely by facts. The product that is researched when concerned with education is a child so the emotional problems that are being caused are as much a \u201cfact\u201d as any other statistic.<\/p>\n
As another negative review, John Merrow highlights the narrow scope of the documentary. His critique is mainly focused on the fact that the movie demonstrates many aspects of schooling that are detrimental to the child yet it waits until the very end of the movie to show any sort of alternative schooling which, as we know, is a major portion of the national education spectrum. This review is the only negative one that I feel has merit. While I found the movie compelling and incredibly moving, I did get the feeling that it was attempting to be a scare tactic. This review shows the method in which it did so. He does spend a large portion of the article comparing \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d to \u201cWaiting for Superman\u201d which isn\u2019t as helpful when looking solely at this documentary. However, his critique remains accurate and thoughtful.<\/p>\n
One thing I found when looking for reviews that weren\u2019t listed on the official \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d site is that many people adopted overly positive reviews. While the basis for the source detective post is to only post reviews that are helpful in finding objective and accurate reviews of the source, I feel that the number of dramatized and \u201cover-kill\u201d style review were overwhelming. For this reason I included the last of these five reviews. Ella Taylor\u2019s review of \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d is an example of the tendency to get swept up in the emotional component of the documentary and not fully analyze it. This review merely summarizes and even at times embellished the message of the movie rather than effectively convey the message to the audience.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reviews:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriel, Trip. “Parents Embrace Documentary on Pressures of School.”\u00a0The New York Times. N.p., 8 Dec. 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.<\/p>\n
Joyce, Cynthia. “‘Race to Nowhere’ Targets Academic Pressures.”\u00a0NBC News. N.p., 3 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. <http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/41744061\/ns\/nightly_news\/#.USgFO1qY584>.<\/p>\n
Mathews, Jay. “Why \u2018Race to Nowhere\u2019 Documentary Is Wrong.”\u00a0The Washington Post. N.p., 4 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.<\/p>\n
Merrow, John. “‘Race to Nowhere:’ It’s No ‘Waiting for ‘Superman’, ‘ but It’s Honest.”The Huffington Post. N.p., 10 June 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.<\/p>\n
Taylor, Ella. “Mom’s Mad as Hell and Not Gonna Take It Anymore in Education Doc Race to Nowhere.”\u00a0The Village Voice. N.p., 8 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For my source detective posting, I was posed with the question of finding reviews of the educational documentary \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d. Initially, I read the ones found on the official \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d site and found that they were all in praise of the documentary. While personally I found the movie incredibly movie, this seemed … Continue reading Race to Nowhere or at Least Somewhere<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}