9486 in the collection
Students feel like they're in a Race to Nowhere
Reader Comment:
We are all guilty. Teachers have never spoken loudly enough about this rot. Administration is just concerned with compiling the most "glowing" statistics possible. And counselors ... yes, Mr. Sweeney's colleagues ... have done nothing to knock the "college for everyone" rant off the radar screen. College is not for every kid ... but they are all pointed in that direction. Parents are never bluntly told the slim chances their own children face at college. Counselors don't dare even suggest such a thing ... professional heresy. And teachers buy into "correct speak" from the start ... a nifty jargon laden game designed to offend no one ... not a single parent ... with this thing called truth.
All kids have great capacity ... not in the same amount nor at the same time. Some bloom early ... some later ... and some never. But they should all share one sacred thing together ... a youth filled with more grins than grinding hours of concocted intellectual torture. Stop it.
by Bob Sweeney
"You have to be smart, but also you have to be pretty and also you have to do sports and you have to be involved in the arts, and you have to find something unique about yourself. And you have to know yourself, because if you don't know yourself before you do all that, you're going to lose yourself."
So declares Kelly, a ninth-grader featured in the documentary, "Race To Nowhere."
The film is drawing national attention and has resonated with large audiences throughout the Lower Hudson Valley this fall, raising provocative questions regarding the value of homework, the overemphasis on testing, performance and competition and how much is too much?
Are we creating an epidemic of overscheduled, unhealthy kids, proficient as test takers but rarely challenged to think creatively?
As a school counselor and father of a high school student, I was riveted by the film's focus on so many issues that have been a longtime concern. Vicki Abeles, a parent, first-time director and filmmaker, aims the camera on her own family and how the stress of school is taking its toll on her three children. She takes the camera well beyond her living room in the San Francisco Bay area to interview students, counselors, teachers, psychologists and education experts across the country to understand an achievement culture of high costs, high stakes and high pressure that has found its way into our schools and into our children's lives.
I have attended several screenings and helped facilitate audience discussion afterward. At each, comments and reactions from so many parents and students confirm that their own lives and fears and concerns just came to life on the screen. They recognize the self-inflicted and extrinsic pressures to get A's and high SAT scores, to take as many honors and Advanced Placement courses as possible, to create the perfect resume, to do community service and to discover a passion by age 17; all ingrained as standards for success and needed to get into the elite colleges that can only admit 3 percent of the eligible high school seniors in the country. And this pursuit begins long before high school Sam, a 12th-grader quoted in the film, is not alone with his feelings about school.
"School's just so much pressure that every day I would wake up dreading it."
Exhaustion, worry and long hours of homework every night with little time left for reading, fun, family or dinner together are often more the rule than the exception in the "race to nowhere" as one student described it. Anyone who sees the film can't help but ask whether this is the reality in their own home and community? If so, should it be and how do we then redefine "success" or raise well-adjusted children at a time when they feel they have little margin for error? Because grades determine their future and because school is seen as a place to compete and to sort the high achievers from the average or less gifted, it should not surprise us that for so many students, a sense of worth depends on their last report card.
Much attention has been focused, as well it should be, on the underscheduled, underpressured and underserved student, most prominently in another documentary making headlines, "Waiting for 'Superman'." "Race To Nowhere" highlights the toll on communities where students feel marginalized and good teachers leave the profession because standardized achievement exams are held as the gold standard in education. Both films have raised awareness and encouraged discussion, but "Race To Nowhere" has done so without focusing blame on any one group. It suggests concrete steps for action, both big and small, in homes as well as in classrooms and in the offices of the stakeholders at every level who care about the education of children. I do urge school administrators and PTSA leaders to arrange a screening in their community and join in the conversation.
The writer, who lives in Ossining, is a guidance counselor at Mamaroneck High School.
— Bob Sweeney
The Journal News
2010-12-12
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201012120230/OPINION/12120329
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