The question we need to ask is what is it we are doing to our students, our children, from the youngest from whom we are taking away their childhood, and worse.

To get a sense of how this film came about, the following video, which is CNN's coverage of the film, will give you a real sense:

If you go to the film's website and explore the ABOUT link you will read:

Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political, igniting a national conversation in her new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in a system and culture obsessed with the illusion of achievement, competition and the pressure to perform. 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.

Now that I have presented some introductory material, let me react, on a personal level, to what I saw in the film, and what I heard in the discussion afterward.

We are burning out our young people. We are subjecting them to pressure that is unreal, that is unproductive. Our national educational policy is a part of this, but so is the sense of too many parents that they must insure that their children get all the preparation necessary to "succeed" which of course means getting into the right elite college, whether or not that makes sense for the child in question.

In the film you hear the voices of young people. You also hear teachers, educational experts, parents. You will learn of the tragic tale of the young lady in whose memory the film is dedicated, who committed suicide in her early teens because she was failing at math. You will encounter students who burn out, never having any down time. You will hear of students who get insufficient sleep trying to keep up with all the school work, and all the activities designed to fill out their college applications.

In a sense this was painful for me to watch. I teach young people, mainly high school sophomores, some of whom are already overscheduled in life. I think of the young ladies who not only play for the school's team, but also play for travel teams in WAGS - Washington Area Girls Soccer, a very elite program - as well as perhaps playing a musical instrument and taking two Advanced Placement (college level) courses as a sophomore. In our school they have at least 7 courses, which could all be academic. Stop and think for a moment - what if each course has 40 minutes of homework a night. That is 280 minutes, or 4 hours and 40 minutes - on top of the full school day, the athletics, the music. They have a lunch period of 45 minutes, and only 5 minutes between classes in a sprawling building. There is almost no "down" time.

In the film you will hear students admit that they cheat, and acknowledge that after the tests they effectively take a memory dump. The panel discussion after the film included two students from the church, one a senior who also runs track on top of his various APs and the other a junior who is also very active. They had been part of the group which screened the film and decided whether to have the church show it. The young man pointed out that he would come home after track practice and his mother would start to ask what homework he had, how he had done on his test, and so on. That merely continued the pressure that the students experienced at school.

Today my AP students took a test. They had two free response questions to write in 40 minutes, a pace somewhat faster than they will need to achieve on the real exam in May. I had narrowed what they had to review so they would not spend a lot of time on material that would not come up on the test. And still one very good student came out of the class ready to cry because she was sure she had failed. She hadn't, but why should she have to experience that? How does that kind of pressure help her to learn?

Before the panel discussion, which also included one parent, one school administrator, and one teacher who like me does a mix of AP and non-AP courses, although her subject is English, a married couple spoke to us. They had experienced the cost - they were both graduates of Virginia Tech. Their two older children were attending Virginia Tech, when their youngest began there this fall. He struggled, he came home, they tried to help him, for a while he was doing better, but then a month ago he killed himself because he felt he had failed. They shared not only their pain, but some of their understanding of how this had come about, and what they might do differently.

On the website, there is a letter from the director, Vicky Abeles, that seems appropriate to quote at this point:

Dear Friends, Three years ago my only knowledge of film came from buying tickets at the box office and going to see a movie with my kids. Race to Nowhere was inspired by a series of wake-up calls that made me look closely at the relentless pressure to perform that children face today. I saw the strain in my children as they navigated days filled with school, homework, tutoring and extracurricular activities. But it wasn’t until the crisis of my 12-year-old daughter being diagnosed with a stress induced illness that I was determined to do something. After months of long evenings battling homework assignments, studying for tests and panic attacks in the middle of the night, we found her doubled over in pain, and rushed her to the emergency room. Her cheerful façade and determination to keep up had masked her symptoms to us, to her friends and to her teachers. I started to make some changes in my home, but the pressures on my children and family felt more systemic and beyond my control. In thinking about my own childhood, it seemed that education hadn’t changed much in the past 30 years, but today’s system is driven by a high-stakes, high-pressure culture. In trying to understand what was driving those pressures, I began speaking to experts. I was stunned to learn of the soaring rates of youth depression, suicide, cheating, and "dropping out" occurring in all types of communities. I spoke with students and their families and teachers across the country, and realized how widespread the problems were, crossing economic and geographic lines -- and how powerless they felt to address these issues in the face of current education policies focused on high stakes tests and competitive college admissions. This problem was affecting millions of kids and yet it wasn’t being talked about. I wanted to do something to raise awareness on a large scale, and to bring communities together to galvanize change. Films had always been a powerful force in my life, so I decided the best way to raise awareness on a large scale was to make a film that clearly captured these stories and issues. I was determined to give voice to those on the front lines of education – students and teachers. So I picked up a camera and began to assemble a team of film professionals. After interviewing students, parents and teachers, I met with top education and child development experts at Stanford University and other leading institutions. I interviewed my own daughter. And I went on camera myself to provide context. One of the high school pupils I talked to, Natan, gave us the film’s title when he said students "get caught up in a race to nowhere." Several months into the film’s development, without any warning signs, a 13-year-old girl in our community committed suicide after getting a poor grade on a math test, adding urgency to the need for change. 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. We cannot keep silent any longer. If I don’t speak out and share these stories, who will? And if not now, when? We cannot wait for large institutions or the government to make the changes our kids need today. Education should not be driven by political and corporate interests. There’s too much evidence that it isn’t working for any of our kids. Layers of change are needed, starting from the ground up. Once you’ve seen the film, please take a look at the resources on our website as a starting place for you to make changes in your home, classroom and community. Let’s join forces to change the system and our culture. Together we must safeguard the health of our children and ensure that they all receive an education that allows them to reach their full potential. Thank you for watching, and acting on what you see. Let’s work together to improve the lives and education of our next generation. Sincerely, Vicki H. Abeles

I urge you to see if it is possible for you to view the film. If you click here you can find a list of screenings currently scheduled. You might also explore possibly setting up a screening if none is planned near you. Many of the screenings have been in places like schools, several of which lead to this Washington Post story about the film, a story that led to the viewing I attended.

Let me quote from that Post piece:

One teacher in the film put it this way: "You have a fear from the parents that my kid needs to be able to get a job. Okay, I got them in the accelerated program; that's the first step. But now they need to perform and compete so they can get into a good school, and it's out of love. It's out of concern. It's out of fear. It's out of all these things that parents normally have, but it ends up turning kids into little professionals."

turning kids into little professionals what if that is not the best thing for our kids? What price are we paying in health, in kids getting turned off to school, to what should be the joy and excitement of learning?

Not all will agree with the thrust of the film. You can see that in the Post piece. From the kids I deal with in a school whose science and technology program is very elite and competitive (and the source of most of my AP students), I think it rings very true.

In the discussion the administrator said that Fairfax County was moving to have more - even all - kids take at least a few AP courses. I think that might be a mistake. For one thing, such course put real pressure on for "coverage" of material that might be on the exam at the expense of deeper learning - remember, I teach AP and this is something with which I wrestle. For another, it is repeating the mistake of assuming that we should be preparing all kids for college, right out of high school. First, not all kids should be going to ordinary colleges - some perhaps might be happier at a culinary school: that would have been true with the young man from the church community who killed himself. Others might not be ready for college yet.

might not be ready for college yet - I speak from experience. I entered Haverford at 17, and I was not ready. I dropped out after two years, came back briefly a few years later, then dropped out again. When I returned at age 25 I was ready. Before that I was not. In my case it was emotional immaturity, social maladjustment, an unhappy adolescence and a lonely high school experience. It does not matter why, merely that for all my supposed intellectual fire power I was not ready to take advantage of being in college.

I was lucky. I grew up without too much damage over the next 8 years, and when I returned for the last time was able to manage and to benefit, even though I still was not quite sure where I was going.

I look at some of my students and see the pressures under which they operate, the expectations to which they are expected to measure up. Imagine graduating with 13 or more Advanced Placement Courses, while playing one or more competitive sports and being in chorus or band or orchestra. Think how over-scheduled they are.

Some students can handle the pressure, the expectations, without serious damage. That they can does not mean that they should.

I fear that the direction of our national educational policy is only part of the problem. I am not a parent, but I do see the impact of parental expectations. After seeing this movie, I wish I could roll back the clock to 3:15 Wednesday afternoon, a parent conference for a young man in our science and tech program who is struggling. He got an A from me first quarter, but has slipped to a C at this point in 2nd quarter. But should the grade be the concern, or should not we be looking at what is going on inside of him that can cause such a rapid swing? In genuine parental concern for wanting him to be successful, are his parents and his teachers perhaps setting him up for personal failure? I worry about that.

Please, if you can, go see the film. Then you decide how relevant it is to those around you, whether you are parent or student or grandparent, teacher or administrator or college admissions official.

The title of the film comes from the words of a young man in the film.

Our children are involved in a non-stop race: filling out all the possible entries for a college application, with APs and activities. A race not only against one another which can be destructive of relationships, but a race against themselves in which most will consider themselves failures.

And the end even if one finishes the race "successfully"??? Where has it gotten one? One jumps through hoops for at least the 4 years of high school and often starting even earlier, gets into the elite college, but what if that is not where one belongs? Where have you arrived?

Are we condemning far too many of our young people to a race to "nowhere"????

Please consider seeing the film. If you a parent, perhaps with your children. It might lead to a discussion beneficial to you both.

Peace.