“Race To Nowhere” Screens at CSUF

Mark Stouffer
11/16/2011 11:36:00 PM

Our high schools are broken. National scores compare poorly to other industrialized nations but beneath that there is an underlying pressure to succeed that is exhausting the students, robbing them of their childhood, and even driving them to commit suicide. This is the narrative and the conclusion of a film and a movement that is sweeping across the country.

The documentary by Vicki Abeles is called “The Race To Nowhere”. It has received a stream of awards from film festivals, been discussed on all the major networks, and has already inspired grass-roots movements which in turn have changed some schools policies. It documents some of the strenuous learning conditions and pointless pressures that turn children into professional test takers. Abeles takes viewers to schools across the country to show students, educators, professors and business leaders who have been affected by the top-down approach to education. Comparisons are made to child labor of the 19th century, to “An Inconvenient Truth”, and to “Food, Inc.”

Tickets are still selling at $10 around the country but the screening at CSUF was free. Attendees filled the auditorium in the Humanities building.

One of the mothers in the film says that her kid’s childhood started out fine but once they reached the 9th grade the pressure started to ratchet up. More and more homework was assigned. Students are taking pharmaceuticals to focus their attention. They are lacking sleep.

Another mother said she had to pressure her daughter “so that she would have a choice”. Some of the pressures mentioned are as old as time. “She compares herself to her friends.” But the film alerts us particularly to the effects of standardized testing, and curriculum.

Students speak of cramming for two days to pass a test, and then forgetting everything they learned after two weeks. They speak of “doing school”. Another student looks forward to when French classes are over and she will “never have to speak French again”.

The effectiveness of large quantities of homework is called into question. Some children have to pull a “second shift” to complete their daily tasks.

The film makes several mentions of the need for critical thinking, and that “smart” has many meanings. One commentator says that “C students run the world” and then the film shows Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, William Branson and others and lists how little college each of them had.

A business professional says that new hires have been coached and tutored their whole lives. When they receive a new task in the office they say “how many paragraphs should I write?”

The grand picture is of a generation of children pumped through a teaching mill of machine-like precision that will force a list of achievement knowledge into the young child’s brain with little concern for the results.

But the problem may be even deeper than the film suspects. After all, within the film, they point out that the standardized testing is producing a batch of cookie-cutter minds incapable of integrating their lessons into their lives, and that it is not satisfying the needs of the companies they start their professional lives at. The film then concludes that the problem is the focus on success and achievement. One man claims we are turning children into little “producers” and a sequence shows a series of large homes and seems to say that wanting a nice home is the problem. But the children are not being prepared to succeed. They are being prepared to conform.

Yet the same film clearly points out that the system is failing at preparing for success. Perhaps the struggle to teach success wouldn’t be so traumatic if the schools weren’t so poor at it. After all, what parent doesn’t want their child to succeed?

There is fear that our kids won’t have opportunities we had growing up and that they won’t be able to compete in a global economy.Vicki Abeles

The documentary has started a movement with a wide variety of educators and administrators involved. One notable group in the film was the Blue Man Group who have started a school of their own. One of the founders of that school had one of the best lines in the film: “Children are born with this innate interest and wonder. We just have to not take it out of them.”

The movement is grass-roots in style and involves having “town hall” style meetings after the screening. Most of the audience stayed and were involved in a lively debate with horror stories of their own. The film seems to have come at a time when many people have noticed that there is something wrong with our education system and are eager to do something about it.

The film offers many possible solutions and many more are discussed on their website online. They focus mostly on the abolishment of homework and reinstatement of holiday breaks. There are studies that show that homework is ineffective beyond a certain amount. But what difference makes our teens perform at only average levels compared to other nations, but our colleges take the top nine out of ten spots in best colleges in the world? The answer to that question might help our Race to the Top.

“ABELES POINTS TO THE SILENT EPIDEMIC RUNNING RAMPANT IN OUR SCHOOLS AS WELL AS A CURE.”

Ilya Tovbis, Mill Valley Film Festival

“FILM PROVIDES LIFELINE TO STRESSED-OUT TEENS.”

SF Chronicle

“CULTURE CHANGING”

Rachel Simmons, co-founder, Girls Leadership Institute and author, "The Curse of the Good Girl"

“MUST SEE DOCUMENTARY”

Patrick Bassett, National Association of Independent Schools

“ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTH”

George Lucas Educational Foundation

“IN THE SAME ADVOCACY VEIN AS FOOD INC.”

NY Times Bay Area Blog

“A REMINDER OF THE HUMAN AND SOCIETAL COSTS OF OUR CURRENT EDUCATION SYSTEM”

Dr. Jim Taylor, education blogger, Psychology Today

“A CALL TO MOBILIZE FAMILIES, EDUCATORS AND POLICYMAKERS TO HELP DISPROVE THE NOTION THAT THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IS 'ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL.'”

Jewish Weekly