I was lucky to catch a screening of The Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture. This doc was made by a mom with no filmmaking experience, Vicki Abeles, after she saw her own kids becoming overburdened, stressed-out and even sick from their hectic schedules, including hours of homework and resume-padding extracurriculars. She interviews parents, teachers and students about their experiences battling school routines that churn out kids who can’t think creatively or independently.
This film is many things: scary, sad, unbalanced in parts, but most of all—important. The fact that Vicki’s project has become the anchor for a grassroots movement for education reform, even without theater distribution, shows how much people care about what’s saying.
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