In the way these things happen, we had a sudden deluge of education stories these past few days. For this Long Islander, the news was local, state, and national.
Our local news concerned a school-district referendum on spending $2 million to add buildings to our intermediate school (grades 4-6). The backstory here is that there used to be two intermediate schools in the district, this one and another. The other was a good school, much liked by parents. Unfortunately it was located in the middle of a nasty slum with a full complement of gangs, drugs, crime, and “low-income housing.” (That last phrase is Newspeak for “custom-built slums.” What, you city types thought such things didn’t exist out here in the bosky suburbs? Let me tell you.)
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There was a fatal shooting near that other school after a July Fourth party. Then in August there was a double shooting, nonfatal but dramatic enough to make the regional TV news. The school board decided the neighborhood was too dangerous for kids, and closed the school. That means more students for the first school. It was scheduled to be expanded anyway via modular classrooms (= trailers), but with this new burden, the district thought a building would be necessary, and put the matter to a referendum.
We voted it down, 863 to 624. There were a number of factors in play, but large among them, to judge from conversations with neighbors, was fed-up-ness with the education rackets and their endless and endlessly increasing demands on our wallets. This is a mainly lower-middle-class town, and a lot of people — people, I mean, who didn’t have the foresight to Get a Government Job — are hard up. Two million dollars sounds like a lot of money when you’re hard up.
Up to the state level. New York has been declared one of the winners in Obama’s “Race to the Top” initiative. This is a scheme in which states can accumulate points for various kinds of federally approved educational initiatives, and win federal cash grants according to the number of points they get. The initiatives are defined as fuzzily as possible to allow for maximum politicization: “Providing high-quality pathways for aspiring teachers and principals” will get your state 21 points, for example. Fuzzy as the initiatives are, though, there’s enough matter in them to generate resistance from the ed-biz unions, and there have been some ugly battles in the state legislature.
To call us a “winner” is really making too much of New York’s achievement. Race to the Top is a caucus race in which well-nigh everybody gets prizes — 10 of the 18 competitors in this latest round. Furthermore, independent education watchers seem unable to find much difference between winner states and loser states. The news has nonetheless been greeted with wild rejoicing in the local media. Even the normally sensible New York Post, America’s Newspaper of Record, ran a triumphal editorial declaring that “the money is great for New York.”
No it isn’t. Not only is it not great, it’s also not money. The federal government hasn’t got any money, and its creditors are shutting off the credit spigot. The $700 million “won” by New York is pretend money, faery gold that will melt away to nothing when the trumpets sound to herald the great inflation that is coming upon us.
Race to Nowhere?
Shame -- what a terrible movie to show to a sensitive teenager. Teenagers are very sensitive and can easily be influenced, positively or negatively. They hear what they want to hear. This dejected movie tells them, at least for the first 20 or so minutes, don't do homework, don’t fall into parents pressure, don't take any after school activity, or don't drive to be the best!
Tells the teachers: don't give homework, don't push them to learn, or don't ask the teens to do anything. The movie tells the parents: don't pressure your children to do their best, don't help them to pursue their dreams, and don't ask them to do anything. What should they do then? It is left to the viewer.
Right from the beginning, it is obvious that the amateur filmmaker Vicki Abeles, has been depressed, has had problems with her family, especially with medical and emotional problems of her own three children, and has been under the impression that the suicide of a teenager is related to school.
The first time movie maker claims that she is exploring the culture of high achievement within her own family, her Bay Area community and around the country. The one sided interviews with selected students, parents, teachers and academicians in a selected area (only four cities) points out the negatives of our educational process. And that is a shame.
But, certainly this is not her intention. The stated goal of the film is "to foster dialogue." What she wants to stress is the issues, problems, and test-centered education as a result of the no-child-left-behind idea. Then, if this is the case, why she does not point to the fact that these are the issues that the parents, teachers, and politicians need to be aware of and start to initiate a dialogue for change. Why the issue of homework is over emphasized? And why the movie, through repeated interviews with selected individuals claims that everything which goes wrong with teenagers, has to do with the pressure of overachievers. Is the suicide of a 13-year old student associated with a failing grade in a course? Couldn't it be related to the fact that she had been depressed for a while, but her parents did not realize it to get professional help? Couldn't it be related to the fact that any teenager can go through a critical period during the adolescence, but the teachers and parents need to be opening their eyes? And finally, why the title of the movie is "Race to Nowhere", rather than being "Issues, Pay Attention?" Race to nowhere implies to the teenagers that there is no future, why bother.
Probably the intention of first time movie maker is to depict the issues that teenagers are facing, the problem with our educational systems or the need for change. Unfortunately, certain critical issues have been negatively overemphasized. How can a coach teach someone to play basketball? Certainly, not by recommending to sit on a couch and listen; rather, to ask the player to practice, and practice, and practice. What is the point of repeated interview of "homework" is bad? The point is the overdose of anything is bad.
Finally, she gets it right; at the end of the movie, she summarizes the main points in a writing form; for example parents should ask children how they feel, reduce performance pressure, or know the signs of childhood depression; educators should evaluate each student on an individual basis, engage students in learning, or recognize the unique talents of each individual. Students should speak to the adults, get plenty of sleep, or do things that they enjoy.
