{"id":3832,"date":"2013-02-24T21:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T02:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/?p=3832"},"modified":"2013-02-24T21:00:28","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T02:00:28","slug":"race-to-nowhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/2013\/02\/race-to-nowhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Race to Nowhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most driven students, achieving straight As on their report cards is simply not good enough.\u00a0 In this day and age, the pressure for kids to perform well in every aspect of their lives is massive.\u00a0 Students are expected to get amazing grades, be the star of a sports team, have the lead role of the play, and still find time for other hobbies that make them \u201cunique\u201d and set them apart from their peers.\u00a0 Vicki Abeles, a mother with children in elementary and middle school, saw the negative effects that this country\u2019s flawed education system has had on her children and decided to do something about it.\u00a0 Her documentary, \u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d, shows the unbearable stress that takes over the lives of the youth as a result of unrealistic expectations coming from every direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d shows the negative consequences of the flaws in schooling and pressure from parents.\u00a0 Hours upon hours of homework cause sleep deprivation, severe stress, and mental and emotional problems.\u00a0 The pressure from parents to achieve perfection leads kids to resort to cheating and cramming for tests.\u00a0 In schools that only value the grades on tests, students merely spit out memorized information and forget it all the second the test is over. One teacher, Darrick Smith, points out that the pressure for students to produce leaves out the processing of the information (Race to Nowhere, 41:10). Students are not truly learning, and teachers are not helping students harness their ability to critically think and be creative.\u00a0 Vicki Abeles addresses all these problems in her documentary by following the experiences of her own children as well as interviewing students, teachers, parents, employers, and psychologists.\u00a0 She features students of all ages, backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses and focuses on the stories of several students that were held back by some of these problems.\u00a0 Her own children have so much homework that they get headaches, lack sleep, and have no free time to play outside or hangout with friends.\u00a0 Other students in the film suffered from eating disorders and emotional breakdowns, had to quit playing sports, and one young girl even went as far as committing suicide.\u00a0 Abele stresses the need for significant change within schools as well as a change in the way parents approach their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cRace to Nowhere\u201d is Abele\u2019s attempt at starting an educational revolution.\u00a0 She sends the message that this country needs to wake up and realize that their children are being emotionally and mentally damaged by this faulty school system, and more focus must be put on fostering happiness, creativity, and critical thinking skills within each individual.\u00a0 Some of the most crucial scenes in the film really emphasize this emotional damage.\u00a0 For instance, a 13-year-old girl named Devon commit suicide because of the intolerable internal pressure she placed on herself to excel in her life.\u00a0 Abele interviews Devon\u2019s mother, who chokes up as she blames the suicide on \u201ca stupid math test\u201d that Devon had recently failed.\u00a0 Abele fills the screen with pictures of this vibrant, young girl while a mournful piano is playing the background.<\/p>\n

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Race to Nowhere (1:10:50)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A similar scene occurs when a psychologist gives a testimony about a girl who came into her office wearing a long sleeved shirt and pulls up one of the sleeves to show that she had carved the word \u201cempty\u201d in her arm with a razor (16:10).\u00a0 The psychologist describes how so many adolescents appear happy and put together but they are metaphorically, and sometimes literally, bleeding underneath it all.\u00a0 These scenes shows the vital need to keep children emotionally stable by lightening their load and taking off pressure to perform, because it can have extreme consequences if something doesn\u2019t change.\u00a0 One teacher, Darrick Smith, memorably notes that parents are always confused as to why their child is experiencing emotional problems because he or she is a \u201cgood kid\u201d, but he remarks \u201cNo, they\u2019re a good performer.\u00a0 You never knew if they were a good kid. You never found out if they were a good solid kid. You knew they were a good student\u201d (Race to Nowhere, 59:30).<\/p>\n

At the end of the documentary, Abele lists way for students, parents, and teachers to improve the educational experiences of students.\u00a0 She notes that parents should not add pressure to their children and focus more on their happiness by creating family time and reiterating the importance of play.\u00a0 Instead of piling on hours of homework each night, Abele suggests that teachers should assign less homework to leave room for students\u2019 family time and play, which would significantly improve children\u2019s emotional wellbeing.\u00a0 She also suggests that teachers find alternative methods of evaluating students besides tests and to encourage students to have more of a voice within the classroom (Race to Nowhere, 1:22:50).\u00a0 More schools should be modeled after the Blue School, which institutes those methods of learning and allows children to be creative and think freely without tests and hours of homework.\u00a0 However, Abele does not really offer many more solutions or alternatives to testing.\u00a0 She states that there should be alternatives, but does not pinpoint any strategies.\u00a0 She also does not mention any specific policy actions for viewers to participate in, besides simply attending school board or policy meetings.<\/p>\n

According to an interview with Abele conducted by John Merrow, the documentary was intended to be viewed by all parents, students, and educators in order to spread the word and create a new atmosphere of learning.\u00a0 This film has been widely recognized by its targeted audience, and these viewers have made the film popular by word of mouth, as the film has no commercial distributor. Abele claims that \u201cthis isn\u2019t just a film; it\u2019s a grassroots phenomenon\u201d (Merrow).<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Merrow, John. \u201c\u2018Race to Nowhere:\u2019 It\u2019s No \u2018Waiting for \u2018Superman\u2019, \u2018 but It\u2019s Honest.\u201dThe Huffington Post. N.p., 10 June 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.<\/p>\n

Race to Nowhere<\/em>. Dir. Vicki Abeles. Reel Link Films, 2010. Web.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most driven students, achieving straight As on their report cards is simply not good enough.\u00a0 In this day and age, the pressure for kids to perform well in every aspect of their lives is massive.\u00a0 Students are expected to get amazing grades, be the star of a sports team, have the lead role of … Continue reading Race to Nowhere<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832"}],"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\/519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3843,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions\/3843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}