Under Pressure: "Race to Nowhere" Resonates With Students

Some students stay up to 3 a.m. to perfect necessary school projects, spend their days doing the necessary activities, get the necessary grades and test scores to get into a top college they believe will give them the future they want.

Other students see no point to the homework, blow it off, get behind and pay the consequences for non-compliance with the game of high school.

Does any of it make sense? Are these the results the students, parents and educators want? Or does anyone care?

The pressures put on students by parents and educators and the lingering doubt in some minds about the good it does, was displayed in the documentary, “The Race to Nowhere,” shown at Shorecrest’s auditorium Tuesday night.

As did the “Chinese Tiger Mother” article by law professor and mother Amy Chua in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago, the movie gave pause to an audience of about 100 mostly students and parents.

“This movie has caused me to change the way I parent and teach,” said Jon Kallestad,who teaches AP psychology and history at Shorecrest and the impetus for the local showing of the film.

A panel featuring Shorecrest physics teacher Kathy Ellingson, Parent Student-Teacher Association co-president Debi Olson, Shorecrest Principal Pat Hegarty, School board member Debi Ehrlichman, and four of Kallestad’s students, Kara Eckardt, Jacqueline Blackmore, Kye Saperstein and Alex Barnes spoke and answered questions after the movie. Audience members also participated in the discussion.

The students on the panel and in the audience were frank and open about their experiences.

Eckhardt admitted to getting wrapped up in thinking “is this going to look good in college” when doing activities. The intensity of the schoolwork has pushed to the brink at times.

“It has really stressed me out,” she said. “Everything seemed to be piling up like jenga blocks.”

Still, while her dream college, George Fox in Oregon would cost $40,000, she admitted that Western Washington would be just as good at a fraction of the cost.

Blackmore, a senior who got accepted to the University of Washington, said her advice to herself as a freshman would be that everything would turn out fine.

Still, she noted the competitive nature in the academic jungle, with friends under high amounts of stress. She said she had been offered medications at school to get through it all.

“It’s ridiculous the amounts of stress,” she said. “I’d like to see something change about the stress.”

Saperstein started coming to public school in the eighth grade when he enrolled at Kellogg Middle School. He said he learned more in a two-month stay in Vietnam and Thailand than by learning by memorization at school.

Barnes, who said he flunked three classes his freshman year—“I messed up and now I’m paying for it,” will graduate but his prospects seem limited and he doesn’t have the GPA he wishes he had.

“I don’t think your life should be based on the SAT,” he said.

He enjoyed the movie because it showed, “stuff you think only you are going through and then you see this movie and see people killing themselves over stress at school.”

Olson and Ehrlichman agreed that it’s hard to define what success is—perhaps it doesn’t always mean going to a top college and gaining some semblance of fame and fortune afterward.

Ehrlichman said her hopes for her children in terms of success, was to be independent personally and financially and do something they enjoy.

What’s important is to do “ a good job of giving opportunities to students in different ways,” providing options such as community colleges, technical schools, the military besides the so-called “best” colleges.

The tough economy is forcing many students to adjust and look for other options, she said. The University of Washington did not admit as many in-state freshmen this year because of budget cuts, for example.

Ellingson said she often hears students complain about “how tired” they are in class.

Many don’t have the judgment to stop at 2:30 a.m. because they want to get a project perfect, she said.

At the same time, “I think there’s a lot of cheating,” she said.

The purpose becomes finishing assignments to get them over with rather than learning, she observed.

Hegarty, the principal, admitted some homework is excessive, “piling on points and paper,” but also said it is a necessary “tool.”

“We have so much control we shouldn’t be afraid,” he said. “I’m fired up by the possibilities.”