Movie #388 ........................."Race to Nowhere"

Movie #388 "Race to Nowhere" I saw with Dave at a Naperville North screening and found it very interesting, and I think a must-see for parents and teachers. As with all films there are positive and negatives. One big negative is that it seems the director/writer has an axe to grind ---- she's upset about how much pressure is put on her kids in their schools (elementary, middle and high school) and she blames everyone for it ---- teachers, administrators, parents, colleges, etc. She puts herself in the movie/documentary , and she has a lot of screen time to gripe --- to make sure the scope of the movie does not appear to be just about her and her kids, the camera goes everywhere and tries to cover a lot of ground --- too much, I thought. At one point halfway through, the topic didn't even seem related to the original topic, but she eventually came back around . If she does nothing else, she points out how overwhelming the problems with our schools are ---- and this is just concerning the good kids, really. What, the upper 15% maybe? the ones who really get stressed out because they CARE! How about all the kids that don't care --- the parents that don't care ---- ? Another movie, I guess. Now the positives abound, as well. She manages to light a fire under many people --- parents, kids of all ages, teachers of all kinds, counselors, college professors, college recruiters, etc. She lets them speak, and there is somewhat of an organization as she moves from one person to the next. Another positive is the solutions she lists at the end for all of the people involved with the problem that she presented in most of the movie. There's some documentation, but I would have wanted even more (Michael Moore is able to do that in a documentary much better with graphs, pictures, etc. Everything is done in narration here) But the huge thing here is that I think it's about time we started the dialogue to make BIG changes in our educational process and do it now! This film could make a difference if everyone would see it. So, once again here's my plea. If you are a parent or teacher or administrator or anyone dealing with schools, see it and then start talking about it. We could make a change if we all got on the same bandwagon!




Average rating: 3.776
I give it 3.5
Race to Nowhere
(2009) PG-13
Director Vicki Abeles interviews numerous teachers and children in this cautionary documentary that focuses on the potential adverse impacts of parents' increasing obsession with their children's academic results. The collateral effects of this extra stress on students and the impacts on entire families are hard to quantify, but the highly emotional reactions of parents and kids captured on camera underscore its importance as a social issue.
Genre: Social & Cultural Documentaries
Format: DVD availability date unkno