The Race to Nowhere

My uncle from Seattle told me about a documentary coming out called "The Race to Nowhere." In the trailer for this movie, it discusses the stress that students undergo in order to succeed and meet the expectations of society. Achieving good grades, passing standardized tests, being involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, getting into college, and making a lot of money are just some of the pressures students face. The trailer mentions how students are experiencing anxiety and depression while some are committing suicide when the stress becomes too much.

This obviously is a major problem. Our society's obsession with success and achievement forces schools to eliminate all the fun in learning. Teachers are teaching to the test in class so that their students pass the required standardized tests. Many districts' fine art and music classes are being cut because they are "not needed" and are too expensive. I think this is crazy. All students need the chance to be creative in school. What student did not like to play with crayons and paint when he or she was little? We all have a creative side, but schools do not always allow this.

The pressure of success is another problem. Although students need goals and should shoot to succeed at what they do, the expectation to always succeed and never fail has got to go away. My pastor at church just finished a series entitled, Fearless. He talked about how many of us have the fear of failure. I will admit, the thought of failing and not being good at teaching is definitely something I think about. Even though I have done well at school my entire life, I still feel the need to be successful at everything I do. My pastor says that often times failure precedes great success. Abraham Lincoln had several failures before he became one of the best Presidents of the United States. In fact, he ran for at least 10 different positions in the government and was defeated at least 10 different times. The point is, even in the midst of defeat, he kept trying. Students do not realize that failure is often a great thing. We can learn from failure and defeat, and if we try again we have a better chance at succeeding.

Overall, I think failure needs to be discussed in schools. Students need to be aware that putting in effort and failing is not always a bad thing. Instead, it makes us stronger and allows us to grow when we push through the failure and try again.

To read more about The Race to Nowhere, here is the website: http://www.racetonowhere.com/