“Race to Nowhere” or Waiting for Superkids.
In her new documentary "Race to Nowhere," first-time filmmaker Vicki Abeles explores the pressures facing many middle-class kids today, including her own young son Zak.
The much-discussed documentary “Waiting for Superman” focuses on low-income children languishing in low-performing schools that ask too little of them. The film “Race to Nowhere” trains its cameras on middle-class children striving in high-achieving schools that expect too much of them.
Born out of first-time filmmaker Vicki Abeles’ concerns over the demands on her children, the documentary is a montage of over-scheduled kids working at a literal fever pitch to be smarter, faster and better to get ahead in what has become an arms race to win admission to top colleges.
“I didn’t think when I had kids, the only time I would see them is 20 minutes at dinner,” says Abeles.
“Childhood has become indentured to test scores, performance and competition,” she says.
“I started to make some changes in my home, but the pressures on my children and family felt more systemic and beyond my control. We face an epidemic of unhealthy, disengaged, unprepared kids trying to manage as best they can.”
In the film, parents confess their contributions to the escalation, pushing their children to do more after coming home from open houses at high schools where they hear that the only students admitted last year to Yale or Harvard had a full AP load. At the first sign of a stumble, parent rush in reinforcements, hiring tutors.
In their efforts to measure up in competitive private schools, Abeles’ children, now ages 16, 14 and 11, began to complain of headaches and stomachaches, and every night became a battle to complete hours of homework.
When Abeles finds her daughter doubled over in pain, a trip to the emergency room produces a stark diagnosis: Stress. Her once carefree children are tense, tired and losing confidence that they can do anything right, says Abeles, who documents her children’s personal struggles, especially those of Jamey and Zak.
But the real moment of revelation comes when a well-liked and seemingly well-adjusted 13-year-old girl in her community commits suicide over a math test grade. “When something like that happens, you can’t help but worry about your own kids,” says Abeles.
The most poignant comments come from exhausted students struggling to excel at everything and still maintain their health and their sanity.
Eating disorders abound. A student explains that she stopped eating because it made her sharper, more alert. A teenage boy says that he doesn’t even have time for a lunch period because of all his advanced classes. Another says he lives on lettuce to maintain his 145-pound wrestling weight.
A therapist talks about the rise in “cutting,” in which teens slice their own flesh in despair. One girl rolls up her sleeves to show the therapist what she carved into her forearm that morning: “Empty.”
At a forum on stress, a teenager cautions parents that the worst question they can ever put to their children is “And?”
“I’m in three AP classes. ‘And?’ Well, I do sports. ‘And?’ Well, I work at the theater. ‘And? What else are you doing?’ I’m in three clubs. ‘Well, you know what looks really good — community service.’ Everyone expects us to be superheroes. ‘Why aren’t you doing more for your community? Why aren’t you working harder at school?’ I think parents need to step back sometimes and say to their children, ‘You’re doing a really good job.’”
But that student’s plaint is followed by counselors who explain that to get into the top colleges today, students really do have to do more because of the increased competition for slots.
The film has its heroes; An AP biology teacher who cut the homework in his class in half and found scores on the AP exam rose. Principals who abolished homework in elementary schools, based on research that shows homework only begins to benefit kids in middle school, but only when it does not exceed an hour a night. Parents who reclaim family time in the evening and stop dogging their kids on grades.
There is a wonderful segment with Matt Goldman, a founding member of the theatrical trio, the Blue Man Group, which won a national following with its blue heads, creative antics and combination of art, music comedy and science. (To me, Goldman’s comments resembled those of regular Get Schooled poster Ed Johnson.)
While a movie or Wii game might seem the next evolution for the wildly popular act, the Blue Man Group chose a unique encore. Its members, all young parents themselves, launched a quixotic school in New York designed on the premise that children’s curiosity, creative expression and self-awareness are paramount.
“Why can’t we have children who love going to school all the way through 12th grade?” asks Goldman. “Why can’t we have happiness be as important a metric as reading skills and math scores? Kids come to school with a love of learning. Why don’t we not take that out of them?”
By Maureen Downey, for the Get Schooled blog
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63 comments Add your comment
mystery poster
December 6th, 2010
1:51 pm
@American Patriot
IMHO, these are the students (now reaching HS age) whose parents over-scheduled and hovered over them when they were young. You know, those who took their kids to soccer three nights a week, dance two nights, language classes, play dates, etc on the weekends.
I first remember hearing about this extensive “over-parenting” maybe 10 – 15 years ago, so it makes sense that those kid would be high school age now.
Just my own non-scientific analysis.
Non-Helicopter Parent with Stressed Kids
December 6th, 2010
2:11 pm
@Maureen My daughter’s school is offering an AP Freshman class. I think it’s insanity! My belief is that this particular public high school is trying to “keep up,” if you will, with the perception that it is one of the top high schools in the state. We moved back to Atlanta several months ago from the mid-west, and I can say with certainty that the public school systems there are far superior to the Fulton County system. The teachers enjoyed their jobs, one never got the feeling that they were overworked/underpaid, and the kids were not constantly working towards fulfilling state mandates. My two teenagers are constantly stressed by the ever-increasing workload thrust upon them because of what the county requires, much of it simply busy-work, and by the chatter from the school counselors that there is no choice if they want to get into colleges! And I have above-average kids. I honestly don’t know how average students can manage this load and have any sort of a life. The current system is taking away teachers’ abilities to be creative and to be in touch with their students. It is not healthy at all, and we will indeed see the ill effects of this imposed stress in the years to come. As with anything else in life, there needs to be a healthy balance.
An American Patriot
December 6th, 2010
2:15 pm
mystery poster
December 6th, 2010
1:51 pm
@American Patriot
IMHO, these are the students (now reaching HS age) whose parents over-scheduled and hovered over them when they were young. You know, those who took their kids to soccer three nights a week, dance two nights, language classes, play dates, etc on the weekends.
I first remember hearing about this extensive “over-parenting” maybe 10 – 15 years ago, so it makes sense that those kid would be high school age now.
Just my own non-scientific analysis.
@Mystery Poster – And sir, exactly what are you advocating with your “Non-scientific analysis”? Than our children should become “Mediocre and Non-competitive” lazy school children who should just do what they have to to “get through”? C’mon, man, think it out…..do we really want that? My own “Non-Scientific Analysis” says…..hell no we don’t!!!!!!!
An American Patriot
December 6th, 2010
2:16 pm
Should be “That our children”
mystery poster
December 6th, 2010
2:19 pm
@Patriot
A bit hostile this afternoon, aren’t we?
I’m not advocating anything, simply putting forth a theory on how we got to where we are now that is counter to your point the finger at Obama for it.
mystery poster
December 6th, 2010
2:31 pm
Oops, …counter to your pointing the finger at Obama for it.
Dekalbite
December 6th, 2010
2:46 pm
“but, in the real world, charters do no better as a group than district schools, and often do worse. ”
I keep hearing that, but no one ever cites their sources. Here’s an interesting more recent study from Stanford that new studies show conflicting results:
but, in the real world, charters do no better as a group than district schools, and often do worse.
http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_CREDO.pdf
Wait for It
December 6th, 2010
4:11 pm
I bet none of the people responding to this blog are Asian or Asian-American. I live is a school district that is about 30% Asian/A-Am, but close to 60% of the AP students and IB students in the local high schools are Asian/A-Am. These kids took weekend classes algebra, foreign language (Chinese, Korean most commonly), serious music courses (several hours a week), and specialized in individual club-level sports like diving, gymnastics, and swimming. The Asian/A-Am children I have met work very hard to meet parents’ expectations. They occasionally express that they wish they didn’t have to work so hard, but they don’t seem to stress out, maybe because the parents so strongly convey that they value the children in their family and as part of an ongoing tradition of high achievement. These kids take a long term view, something along the lines of the effort put in now will make college more productive and ultimately result in better lives for themselves. Also, these kids don’t waste time with a lot of the social interactions that many teens do – few are on Facebook, most have limited hours for parties, games, dates, and have curfews, socialization often takes place through religious or cultural activities that reinforce the Asian/Asian-Amer values of the particular country (again, mostly China and Korea). These kids are focused, they spend their free time and their work time efficiently.
An American Patriot
December 6th, 2010
4:18 pm
mystery poster
December 6th, 2010
2:19 pm
@Patriot
A bit hostile this afternoon, aren’t we?
I’m not advocating anything, simply putting forth a theory on how we got to where we are now that is counter to your pointing the finger at Obama for it.
@Mystery Poster – Yeah, I probably am, but I get irritated when I see people tearing my country apart. This issue is just a small part of the bigger picture, but altogether they spell disaster.
Ole Guy
December 7th, 2010
1:03 am
What in hell’s happening here? Is it just me, or have we gone stark raving mad…a 13 year-old kid commiting suicide over a poor grade…there’s no other way to express indignation over the fact that we adults, parents in particular, have really screwed kids’ minds up.
Doc, your reference to the fictional father, in the movie Dead Poets…, who unwitingly drives his kid to suicide, is a perfect example of what these idiot parents have become.
What I have difficulty in understanding is the fact that parents pushing their kids to excell is nothing new. My Dad, often with the zeal of a runaway bulldozer, often shoved me in directions of mental exertion to which I rebelled with equal tenacity. To this day, I marvel at the very fact that, bumping into the Medicare years, I managed to keep life, limb, and mentality intact despite my teen years’ insistance to the contrary.
I feel that one factor is tragically missing in today’s youth…and it’s not their fault. It’s the fault of a society which demands fair play at the expense of innovation. The greatest gift my Dad left me was the gift of FURY, the realization that we cannot afford the luxury of of self-pity…of beating up on ourselves for ostensible failures. I have had my share of life’s failures, both as a young adult, and as the brilliant (in my own mind, anyway!) senior statesman I (in my own mind, anyway!) am. When I have tripped over life’s landmines and bear traps…in a word…I got PISSED! Dad’s gift has somehow enabled me to get up, dust myself off, lick my wounds, and find another way to achieve goals…in military parlance…to accomplish the mission.
Unfortunately, from what I have observed, kids, and even the “younger” post-post Baby Boom Generation, as a whole, gets stuck in the mud of inaction. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, we 1) divorce, 2) file bankrupcy, 3) go out of business, 4) look to the government to solve our problems, 5) commit suicide, 6) etc, etc,etc. All of these things…and much more…while certainly nothing new, have become almost de reguer/normally accepted in contemporary life. Whatever happened to TENACITY…to DETERMINATION…to GETTING PISSED, not at others, but at our own self-imposed weaknesses. I believe it’s called INTROSPECTION. Maybe this is what we should be teaching kids…how to get to know who Little Johnny or Little Suzzie is…to feel comfortable with who and what we are/aren’t. We just might learn that we don’t need superkids, just kids who feel super about themselves.
David Sims
December 7th, 2010
3:33 am
“Race to Nowhere” is a pile of nonsense. Whether you like it or not, this is a competitive world. If you remove the competition from your part of the world at one level, then you will simply render your players unable to compete when they arrive at a higher level, and they will certainly be unable to compete with the players in other parts of the world where people struggle unceasingly for the mastery of skills.
You do your children no favor to relieve them of hard struggle now, only to see them lose out on good jobs later become someone else had the competitive edge that your kids lacked. Depriving your children of intensiveness in education and other training has an effect very similar to that of academic cheating.
Where is the gain, if your children have leisure time for play now, but turn out 2nd- or 3rd-rate performers later? My brother married a Chinese woman who, after they married and had a baby daughter, turned into Dragon Lady. I won’t detail her many aggressive sins here. Instead, I’ll tell you one thing she did right. She was hard on my little niece, requiring her to take piano lessons, violin lessons, and figure skating lessons in addition to her school work, while she grew up learning (at least) three languages and then learned yet another in high school.
Dragon Lady was a severe critic, taking my niece to task for any shortcoming, any lack of perfection. As the result, my niece was one of her city’s finest students, able to hold her own against all competitors, likely to be accepted at any university, and will probably have her choice of careers after she gets her degree. And, if you ask her, she didn’t lack for social life. She’s popular. She’s athletic. And she might even be more accomplished academically than I was at her age. (I was the STAR student from Brantley County High School in 1978.)
I don’t think that the world will be kind to those who took long recesses in childhood.
An American Patriot
December 7th, 2010
9:00 am
Well written, David Sims
Thanks for saying what this un-educated mind couldn’t!!!!!
NotImpressed
December 8th, 2010
9:55 am
GCPS has many freshmen in AP courses. There are a multitude of juniors and seniors in 6-7 AP classes a day (non-block). The kids are so over-worked and many of them have problems with the rigor of AP, especially the science and math. Schools write their “goal” to include participation in AP courses. Counselors and teachers are instructed to put kids in AP classes whether they are ready or not.