1. I attended the showing of Race to Nowhere last night. It was a powerful message that hit me emotionally as a parent and changed some of my perspective of education as a teacher. I consider myself “reasonable” with my expectations of my children and students. I pride myself on appreciating my children for their unique gifts and talents and as a teacher I feel I look at my students in a similar and objective manner.
What the movie brought to light was how little that matters when American government, economy, media, society and beliefs are focused on success through wealth acquisition requiring college education. The focus of the parents in the video express a natural desire to support our children to meet the demands of a competitive world by scheduling sports, religious education, homework, music lessons, community service and so on. The focus of the students was split, some wanting to succeed so badly, wanting to please their parents they sacrifice their health and happiness. Other students talk about the pressure and stress as the reason they’ve given up.
The film discussed the need for a paradigm shift, away from the American idea of success, away from the fierce competitive nature of higher education, away from the mile wide inch deep curriculum and the fact that it was shown in a high school where we operate on the very beliefs the movie intends to say need to be changed was ironic.
2. You couldn’t have said it better. I believe achieving CAN be a good thing - Then the question begs – in what areas of our lives do we choose to be successful and put our efforts - have we achieved a successful balance for emotional health, healthy relationships, healthy family functioning, healthy work world, financial and physical health, etc. NOT AN EASY TASK – as we make daily decisions that affect each and every area.
I guess we each have to decide what the definition is - of a successful life - for our own lives - and live accordingly.
WOW – too philosophical but I couldn’t resist. Sorry.
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