Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Race To Nowhere Revisited


Race To Nowhere, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

In October, I went to see this documentary and blogged about it on my teaching blog. Tonight, I went to see it again. Why would I do that?

When I saw this for the first time, I said in my blog post, "...wonder if I can convince my younger daughter’s school to have a screening of the film...". Tonight my younger daughter's school did have a screening, so I went hoping for some conversations. Conversations about the homework load and limiting the pressure when applying for colleges and helping our daughters to balance their lives, etc. Unfortunately those conversations did not occur. I did have a nice discussion with another mom and I'm sure that if I had approached the administrators that were at the screening, I might have had an individual conversation about these issues but I was hoping for a larger discussion.

I have had a short conversation with my daughter about the film and will continue to bring up the issues it raised but I feel that so much is out of our control. If the school culture doesn't change, if teachers do not change the amount of homework assigned, if colleges don't change the way students are admitted, things won't change. Do I think they should change? Absolutely. Do I think they will? Unfortunately, I don't see it happening anytime soon but I hope I am wrong.

Date Taken: January 25, 2011
Camera: Hipstamatic 185
Software: John S Lens, Pistil Film, No Flash

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Followed your link on fb to this, Vicky. Although I personally don't have kids in school, what I DO observe and pick up on about what's going on in schools these days appears preposterous to me and does, indeed, look to me like "A Race to Nowhere". --The title of the movie and it appearing to be a documentary (which it indeed, is) drew me to take a closer look at what you had to say about it.

Too bad no constructive group conversation ensued after your most recent viewing. Are people, in your opinion, apathetic to it or do they feel powerless to do anything about it, or *what*? We're talking about our KIDS and the future of the United States of America here, so it astounds me that people don't try harder than they do to stand up for that.

Just my .02 cents on the matter without having seen the film. Would like to see it!

Michele (Shigoka ;)

Vicky said...

I don't think it's apathy. I think it's more a feeling of that's the way it is and we have to play the game. We were asked to think about the film and to start conversations about it in our broader community - I just wish there had been a discussion with all of the people there.