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EMPTY Film Review: RACE TO NOWHERE (a fi lm by Vicki Abeles; Reel Link Films, 2009) by Dan Marengo
Vicki Abeles about “making the grade” in today’s goal-oriented educational system. Abeles, a concerned mother- turned-filmmaker, aims her camera at our “culture of achievement” and delivers a provocative, in-your-face, conversation-starter of a film. It’s a movie about too much— mostly about too much homework. Young people are profiled and fol- lowed through the long days (and nights) they spend tackling mountains of assignments. Thoughtful teachers and administrators weigh in with cost/ benefit analyses of chasing grade- school standards and other cur- rent measures of academic success. Whether you have children or not, the endearing cast and their individual stories make for powerful cinema. “Race to Nowhere was inspired by a series of wake-up calls that made me look closely at the relent- less pressure to perform that children face today,” said Abeles. “I wanted to do something to raise awareness on a large scale and to bring communities together to galvanize change. Films
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ace to Nowhere is a haunting doc- umentary by the East Bay’s own
have always been a powerful force in my life, so I decided the best way to raise awareness on a large scale was to make a film that clearly captured these stories and issues.” She adds, “I was determined to give voice to those on the front lines of education: students and teachers.”
Race to Nowhere takes the view that today’s educational system is a runaway train. The unsustainable, “more is better,” ethos goes beyond the classroom and extends to extracurricu- lar activities and by extension, reflects the values of our acquisition-oriented society, as well.
That kids have to work heroically to keep up is not up for debate; they do. As it is made clear in the film, edu- cators are faced with fewer resources, smaller budgets and ever-increasing class sizes. They also are pressured by incentivized administrators to keep their students at grade standards. The teachers interviewed in Race to No- where express frustration over having to teach to a single standard for a class- room of individuals with a range of abilities, and having to cover too much content for the time their students are
in class. The result: the nylon-wrapped boulders also known as backpacks that are carried, or more often, wheeled home, stuffed with textbooks and homework each evening. There always will be super- achievers who can work on homework late every night and feel fine the next morning. They sometimes grow up to run Fortune 1000 companies and win Nobel Prizes, but are unlikely to be- come educators, as Race to Nowhere keenly points out. If achievement at this level is seen as standard, the bar is being set dangerously high.
The dangers are well documented
in Race to Nowhere: inadequate sleep for normal brain development; strained familial relationships; stress-related disorders, including anorexia and de- pression; drug abuse (everything from caffeine to amphetamines—whatever it takes for young people to keep their edge late into the night); cheating; and ultimately, teen suicide. It’s an outcome that is integral to the film and rendered with heartbreaking effect. Race to Nowhere posits that the unintended result of the education race is a silent epidemic of unprepared,
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