Race to Nowhere

On Thursday (after our blogs are due, so I can’t post a review), I’ll be going to a screening of Race to Nowhere, the documentary about the (flawed) structure of our educational system and the pressure kids are under to succeed. (When I first heard of it, I confused it with Waiting for Superman, the David Guggenheim documentary about kids vying to get into private school. I've added it to my Netflix queue for post-winter-quarter viewing.) It hasn't been released widely; instead, filmmakers appear to be pursuing a "community screening" strategy. Locally, two screenings are coming up: Thursday in Lynnwood, and March 24 on Mercer Island (information on the screenings is available at the Web site). The screening in Lynnwood will conclude with a panel discussion that includes local educators. The film's Web site includes features, such as this one from The Washington Post, and a clip in which one educator describes how high school has become merely preparation for the college application.

Having not seen the film, I don't know it contains specific references or case studies of elementary and middle school, but the message--that kids face pressure from parents, from standardized tests, from teachers, from colleges--speaks to the larger issue of what we expect out of education, and how all of us, inside and outside education, can take action to help kids.