UPDATE: Due to popular demand, a second screening has been added for Race to Nowhere, at the Montclair Cooperative School’s Annex on Thursday, January 13 at 7 pm. Tickets for that screening can be purchased here.
On a rainy November night a crowd of concerned parents turned out for the public screening of the “Race to Nowhere,” a documentary film, which investigates “the dark side of America’s achievement culture.” So many people showed, in fact, that the venue had to be moved from the Little Theater at Montclair High School to the larger Main Auditorium.
The filmmaker, Vicki Abeles, a concerned parent herself, began the project after witnessing the toll the high-stakes, high-pressure culture had on her own children. While Abeles interviews a number of middle and high school students including her own children she films primarily in California with only one or two students from elsewhere around the country. All of her subjects, though, fall prey to the system and suffer from the resulting disengagement, depression and stress-related illness.
In her own case, Abeles awoke one night to find her 13-year-old daughter doubled over in pain. She rushed her to the hospital to find the pain was actually stress induced.
Abeles’s daughter wasn’t alone. Another student in the film was hospitalized twice after routinely going without sleep in order to complete homework and suffering from depression due to the overwhelming sense that she could not “do it all.”
The kids in the film as well as the teachers, counselors, therapists and parents all spoke about the unrelenting mound of homework, sometimes up to 5 or 6 hours a night, and the burdensome time commitments of extra curricular activities. For one student, when the school bell rang at 3 pm, he went straight to wrestling, where he stayed until 7 pm before returning home to work on his homework until 12 or 1 am. Another student, who was the Vice President of her class as well as a member of the soccer team, started taking drugs to help her keep up with her classes. Others admitted to cheating under intense pressure to secure good grades.
In the most severe case a 13-year-old girl in Abeles’s community commits suicide shortly after failing a math test. The film makes a tenuous case relating the suicide to the test result. The film does not present the circumstances of the girl’s life or any other problems in school save the one F on the one test. The girl’s mother states there were no signs of distress prior to her death while also acknowledging the father sought help from the school about concerns for his daughter.
No doubt the mounting pressure on kids is troublesome, and it seems to be trickling down to younger and younger students, some in third, fourth and fifth grades. The pressure’s applied in lower grades so kids are prepped for multiple AP classes (sometimes as many as 5 or 6) in high school. The students feel compelled to take the advanced courses along with participating in a myriad of extra curricular activities in order to get into a “good” college.
Unfortunately, this workload and drive to perform well on tests doesn’t seem to be compatible with actual learning. The students’ brains function more like factories. They cram information in before the test, they spit out answers to familiar questions on the test, and then they promptly forget it all as they move on to the next task. The kids are not actually learning the subject matter. They are simply memorizing answers to questions for a test. Sadly, the students fail to learn the skills required to succeed in college and the workforce: critical thinking skills, analytical skills and creative thinking. The lack of these abilities may explain why 50% of freshmen students entering the University of California have to be remediated.
While the film was moving and disconcerting, it never addressed the main issue: from whence does the pressure originate? Yes, it’s the system and the culture, but the educational system and competitive culture is varied and diverse, and babies don’t emerge from the womb insisting upon going to Harvard. To be sure there are multiple factors and many influences on a child or adolescent, but I found the film disappointing in that it didn’t seem to address the main one: parents. All the kids stressed they had to get A’s; they had to take 2,000 AP courses; they had to get in to a top school; they had to be successful. But whose definition of success was it, and how was success defined?
That is the true question.
If you weren’t able to attend the screening last night, you can see the film at the following schools:
December 8 at 7 pm – Westfield High School. Purchase tickets here.
January 12 at 7 pm – Montclair Cooperative School. Purchase tickets here.
Some parents are out of control pushing their kids. I recently read an article about ‘free’ story time at NY public library and how it was the thing to do and moms and nannies on line for hours actually selling spots in the line. There are parents that don’t want their children to miss anything in fear that some other child will get an advantage on them. It’s crazy and its obvious they don’t realize the pressure they are putting on these kids from a young age. Sending kids to school after they already spent the day in school when they are already good students to make sure they get ahead just burns them out. Sure if a child is struggling but some want to create a super child and imo i think it does more harm than good. Kids figure it out and they just need to be encouraged and pointed in the right direction.
Word.
My favorite day is when I see the little prof, laying upside down on the sofa watching TV… Being a kid. I aways smile when I see a group of kids slow-walking down the street talking and just hanging out.
But far too many parents push their kids- as this Doc shows- with all sorts of lessons (see yesterdays’s NYTimes cover story about little kids playing sports), teams and classes.
And too many kids fail to be kids and have a fun childhood.
Eager to see the movie and be part of the reflection and conversation around it. I know Montclair Cooperative School is offering a showing open to the wider community on January 12th. It’s in my calendar and plan on going. I got tickets here: http://rtnmontclaircooperative.eventbrite.com/
Completely agree herbeverschmel. Many children are signed up for 2-3 activities a week, in addition to school. I know many preschoolers who go to tutoring–yes, preschoolers.
Then they have playdates scheduled all the time. I have been on playdates where the parents organize playtime. Very few people tell their kids to go play these days.
This preview is odd in that it seems to blame EVERYONE as much, if not more, than the parents; who after all are the CAUSE of this.
IF parents DE-EMPHASIZE all this crap, kids will be fine. But they won’t, because parents LIVE for the prestigious sticker on the back of the car- whether to signal a choice vacation spot or a college– THE WORLD MUST KNOW!!
As an educated in Higher Education and a parent, I can say, I only want the little prof to be happy. If he’s a teacher, fireman, electrician, stockbroker, struggling artist or President. I only want him to enjoy life and laugh as much as his parents do.
If he’s not, no matter how rich or prestigious his job, I will feel like a failure!
So True, Prof, though I don’t think I can de-emphasize the piles of homework. HW must be done because it is factored into the grade.
At my favoritest school ever, Renaissance, the brilliant and talented teachers would actually get together to make sure that there was not one particular day where everyone had a test, or a project due, but the HS is a different animal altogether.
My girl used to be open to the idea that Montclair State would be a great place to go – she can even take the train there and not worry about parking!
Then this year she has started with the nose-wrinkling. Montclair State??! Ugh! I don’t know where she got this from but this must-attend-college-far-away-and-mortgage-my-future-income-for-decades mentality is a foreign phenomenon to me. Maybe I wasn’t the smartest brick in the wall but I had some pretty smart friends, and they went to Berkeley, Stanford, USC, UCLA. Most everyone stayed in California or even in our own home town. Some of them went to community college for the basics (those Freshman-101 level classes) then transferred to the “better” school after 2 years.
I don’t understand the overarching idea in these here parts that makes it seem like you’re a complete loser if your DON’T leave home and spend at least $40k a year on tuition. Why is this? Why is everyone so anxious to push their kids out the door at the tender age of 18?
Ah, Renaissance…..
I would hope that parents (and students) would realize that for many, it’s not just the school, but the Dept. of study. For some programs, our State Colleges offer best.
“Famous” University degrees “travel” well in that, they are known around the world. BUT in different cities, you may find an abundance of grads from local Universities- and like everything else, folks like to hire/work with people like them. Go to the Court Houses in NJ and you’ll be overrun with Rutgers and Seton Hall grads.
Also, fit is important. To go to a great school and feel like a loner is not a good thing. It’s important for a student- especially Freshman/Sophomores- to feel at home and secure at a school. For many, this may mean being close to home, for others being as far away from home as possible.
But to go to a prestigious school just to go, is not the best plan. (Regardless of how great parents feel with that sticker in the window.)
In our little corner of Baristaville, we have parents moving their kids from one end of town to the other because they think the schools in “North” Bloomfield are better. Better being whiter and more money. It’s all about perception. Learning the three R’s can be done most anyplace no matter how many smart boards there are.
I’ve yet to see a school that can teach ambition.