Race to Nowhere

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a film screening held at my town's high school with two friends and early childhood educator colleagues (I can use that term again now that I have plans to return to work in a few months). I was anxiously anticipating finally seeing Race to Nowhere after having watched the trailer and reading about it online. I had perceived it as a counterpoint to the documentary Waiting for Superman, which I admittedly couldn't bring myself to go see for all the anti-teacher hype that it stirred up. I expected an emphasis on the pressures placed on students today by our test-score-driven system.

I didn't expect to need a box of tissues.

At least forty minutes of the film had passed before I realized that I needed to be documenting my reactions to the film in writing, but after that point, I spent the rest of the movie scribbling two pages of almost illegible, double-underlined, exclamation-pointed reactions, and they've helped me to remember how many different points this film made that deeply resonated with me.

Here's the synopsis from the film's website:

"Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

In a grassroots sensation already feeding a groundswell for change, hundreds of theaters, schools and organizations nationwide are hosting community screenings during a six month campaign to screen the film nationwide. Tens of thousands of people are coming together, using the film as the centerpiece for raising awareness, radically changing the national dialogue on education and galvanizing change."

Yes, it was all this and more. I marveled at how many theories and ideas about child development and education that I personally revere were either directly mentioned or easily connected in my own mind:

• the importance of play in early childhood education
• the need for downtime in children's lives
• the practice of "pushing down" education and expectations in childhood- meaning that what used to be the "norm" for second graders is now expected in kindergarten
• the inability of guiding students to develop critical thinking skills through our current test score focused education model
• the expectation that all students be the top 2% (I loved that someone even mentioned the Garrison Keillor/Lake Wobegon mentality of "all the children are above average")
• the lack of educational benefits from assigned homework for elementary school children
• the ever-rising prevalence of cheating in schools, especially at the older student levels
• concerns over the general level of emotional and mental health of our nation's students
• the manner in which we're simultaneously expecting more of our children today than ever before, yet limiting their development of self-sufficiency, both personally and educationally- ask an undergraduate college professor about how students need to know "what's going to be on the test" more than ever, and the general trend of lower maturity levels among their students

I cried as students spoke bluntly and emotionally about the pressures they feel, the course loads they felt they had no choice but to take, the regular practice of putting aside sleep and health in order to complete the work and take part in all the extracurricular activities that are necessary (or perceived as necessary) to get to the next step in their educations. I cried as I thought about our son's struggles with school and managing his work after only six years in the formal education system, and I cried even harder when I imagined what the coming years will most likely bring.

So much of what I saw from the interviews with the filmmaker Vicki Abeles, as well as with the educators and consultants in the film, just made sense. I'm all for students, and my children, to work hard in school and achieve educational successes, but one thing that was reiterated several times in the film sums it up best for me: We have to change what we define as success for kids.

The letter from Vicki Abeles on the film's site sums up her initial motivations for making the movie, and it's definitely worth the read. What I consider the most meaningful line from it is this: "Childhood has become indentured to test scores, performance and competition. We face an epidemic of unhealthy, disengaged, unprepared kids trying to manage as best they can."

Honestly, there's so, so much that can be talked about from this film, and I could go on and on about how I fear our education system is doing some major injustices to our children. I wish I had some answers, but I feel so powerless as a parent... I can express, along with other parents, that I don't see the point to homework in first grade, or that it's outrageous that recess is only fifteen minutes long (including the corralling the group to and from the playground!!), or that the removal of recess as punishment isn't doing our kids any good. I can express that, but how much is actually under the control of my children's teachers or administrators, who knows? Everyone feels pressure from above to reach these lofty, and often misguided goals, and in a public school system like ours where too many students are crammed into classrooms with too few educators on hand to work with them, it just feels to overwhelmingly impossible to effect any sort of change.

But, I don't want to feel completely disheartened, and I think it's films like this, and the discussions that can result in groups of concerned folks who view it, can perhaps get the ball rolling in a better direction. I highly encourage anyone out there to check for local screenings of Race to Nowhere near you. If you're a MD reader, there just so happens to be one in Rockville next week on 5/18. I was fortunate to attend a screening literally across the street from my home, but I believe that many more members of my own immediate community would enjoy and benefit from seeing the film, so I'm curious about how another screening could be arranged, and community groups around the country are encouraged to host screenings to continue to get the word out.

If you believe, as I do, that there is much room for improvement in our current educational system and are curious to hear the perspectives of some students, parents, educators, and mental health practitioners on this multifaceted and complex issue, I urge you to find a way to watch Race to Nowhere.


Hoping for change,