<p>Documentary re: the state of education in America. Trailer can be viewed at link below. Movie to be released later this month. It looks like it will be a very insightful movie.</p>
<p>Race</a> to Nowhere | Changing lives one film at a time</p>
<p>Thanks so much for posting this!</p>
<p>Thanks from me, too. This looks very timely. The uber-competitive culture is killing our kids, sometimes literally. I look forward to seeing the film.</p>
<p>Everything needs to be viewed in perspective. the competetive challenges facing our teenagers today are not more intense than those that faced those who carved this nation out of wilderness or who faced the Civil War or the Great depression or coordinated attacks by Imperial Japan and the Third Reich. The word is a tough place and our kids need to face pressure and competition if they are to keep this great experiment in economic and political liberty going.</p>
<p>Looks like an excuse to cut challenging classes for the kids who actually want them. </p>
<p>The natural extension of APs for everyone is that kids who shouldn’t be there (or shouldn’t be there for <em>all</em> classes) are entirely too stressed out, and instead of saying that these very challenging classes should be for exceptional students, or students with intense interest in this subject, instead we say that we’re stressing out “our” kids.</p>
<p>I don’t think the movie will be used as an excuse for cutting challenging classes. really, the movie is (validly) pointing out that our kids are over-stressed and overscheduled. </p>
<p>In my opinion, it is ridiculous for HS students to take 5 (or more) APs courses in one year, but many kids do that, many schools allow it and many parents push for it. HS is not college. If a student takes that many APs, they cannot possibly have a true HS experience.</p>
<p>Why does everything have to be so accelerated?</p>
<p>If a student takes that many APs, they cannot possibly have a true HS experience.</p>
<p>What the heck is a true HS experience?
I hated my suburban high school. Only one class was truly interesting and I dropped out when I reached 16, because I was so bored.
I would have loved to have had more planned & interesting activities available.
Needless to say- * my kids* did. They are doing great.</p>
<p>^^^I beg to differ. There are kids who can take 5 APs or more and still have a true high school experience. My daughter is one of them. She has 4 AP clases and 4 dual enrolled classes as a senior this year. She captains two varsity sports as well as a club sport. She is also active in several clubs at school. Personally, I would have preferred she take a lighter load, but she seems to do best when she is challenging herself. I agree that this is probably not the best course of action for most high school students, but I am glad it is an option for the kids for whom it is an approriate choice.</p>
<p>The school systems seems to be bi-modal, with some “excellent” schools and/or districts and the remaining ones ranging from mediocre to abysmal. Similarly, there is a similar discrepancy within some schools such that there is an AP/Honors track which provides a challenging curriculum and there is a “dumbed-down” track for the rest of the students. This last sentence describes the school my 2012 daughter attends. So, students who are ready for appropriately challenging high-school courses can only get them if they take APs in this, and similar, schools. I also see a small cadre of students on overload with APs and extra- curricular activities, amidst a sea of largely disengaged, disenfranchised youth. Students who are not taking honors classes may have straight As, but be relatively unprepared, as the friend of one of my kids’ who thought she was doing well with a high-A average, but has bombed the SATs with a 1300 ish score out of 2400. Other districts/schools have more high-pressure environments due to a high-achievement mentality overall, representing the socioeconomics/demographics of their area. I live in CA; I realize there are states that do provide more of a consistent, high standard across the board. </p>
<p>I wonder what it would take for us to provide appropriately challenging coursework for students, throughout the country? How do we raise the standard of achievement on average, or for typical students? How do we help students be engaged in their learning, rather than have them rush around from one activity to another in the hopes of grabbing the gold ring of acceptance to an elite college?</p>
<p>Only so many students will gain entry to elite institutions, private or state flagship. What about the rest of the students, who may enter college woefully unprepared? Or, there may be quite capable students who feel they are failures because they are not outstanding-- the B+ kids in the honors/AP track… OR the kids who soldier on --contributing in supportive roles-- but not in leadership positions. Aren’t most of us in those types of supporting roles at least some of the time, if not much of the time, in our lives? So why do we focus so much only on leadership?</p>
<p>So, what am I saying? I guess that while there is a group of very overwhelmed, stressed-out kids overstretched in their academics and outside activities, there may be another, larger group, of students who do not even begin to consider planning for life outside of high school until 2nd semester, senior year. Hey, with 2 counselors for 3000 students, they do not get the guidance to plan for their future early enough. As a society, we need to do better for both groups.</p>
<p>My older kid (college student/“elite” university) recounts that the college admin instructed students to steer visitors for admit weekend away from topics such as SAT scores/AP tests/GPAs/extracurriculars that “look good” and toward interests in genuine learning, so if someone began to talk about the impending AP chem test, steer them to talk to a student involved in interesting research in Chem, or doing an honors project in that area, or involved in a fascinating science-related extracurricular endeavor, etc. First year students were given the suggestion to take classes that interest them for the first year, and to worry less about their career direction in that immediate year, but more about engaging in the learning process. These kids, by and large, will do fine – but we could do a better job of getting them to where they need to be, academically prepared and with less stress.</p>
<p>Now, the rest of the kids, who are the majority, what are we doing for them?</p>
<p>Of course, a “true HS experience” is different for everyone, but, for most kids, it shouldn’t require 6-8 hours of AP HW every day. That doesn’t leave time for anything else that may interest a kid. APs are not particularly interesting or thought provoking courses- they are basic college courses that follow a very precise syllabus. Boring, if you ask me. And needlessly stressful.</p>
<p>And yet, mommylaw, there seems to be such a downward pressure from the college level onto the HS level to complete as many of these types of courses as possible. Every one of DS’ applications has a box for the gc to check: has student taken the most rigorous curriculum? - and it’s a yes or no question. DS will get a “NO” despite having taken 6 honors courses, 3 AP’s, and a course which actually gets 3 credits from a local college while being offered in his hs. How does that look to admissions personnel? And why should someone have to take, say, honors/AP Spanish if they have no interest in the subject whatsoever?</p>
<p>Fishymom: That is great for your daughter. Obviously, this movie is not about kids like her, although from some of the students’ comments in the movie, they are more stressed out than they would like to be. (Aren’t we all :^) )</p>
<p>Based on the trailer, the movie is about kids who don’t want to take tons of APs, don’t want to have hours upon hours of HW and want more down time. But at the same time, they are feeling pressured from a young age to take more classes, participate in more sports, clubs, & extra-curriculars, do community service, get perfect test scores etc. </p>
<p>Like mamita said, there are a group of kids for whom multiple APs and tons of activities are doable and enjoyable. There are others (like the kids shown in the movie trailer) for whom such a schedule is not appropriate at all, yet they are still doing it and are not enjoying it. This movie is addressing THAT issue.</p>
<p>Sylvan8798, since it wasn’t that way way back when I applied to college, we have to ask ourselves: which came first? Colleges requiring such a rigorous HS load OR uber-competitive students/parents raising the bar so everyone now needs the rigor to get in? I expect that the movie is asking- is this right? Can it be changed? Should it be changed? If so, how?</p>
<p>My D will have taken 5 APs total, the rest honors, and probably won’t be marked as having taken the most rigourous courseload available b/c other kids will have taken 10-12APs. At D’s school, it is nearly impossible to take that many APs and “have a life.”</p>
<p>
All those things are sensible to do if they are needed to achieve a goal that you have, just as most people have to work hard if they want to earn money, or exercise if they want to get fit. Perhaps the problem is that the parents have the goal, and the kids don’t share it.</p>
<p>
But isn’t the question - Should they be needed to achieve the goal that you have? I’m sure there are students out there who are near genius in basically one subject (math, say) but who have little to no interest or appetite for other things. Should Miss Math Genius be rejected from XYZ-uber-school because she didn’t take Honors Spanish and so got a “NO” on the “most rigorous” question? Does that make sense?</p>
<p>AP classes are not an imposition. If one is “unhooked” yet wants to compete for an “elite” university, it is required that he take the most challenging courses offered at his respective high school. If that is not “having a life” then choose among the other 3000 colleges that are out there the challenge is to be eaningfully involved in ECs, take challenging courses, do community service AND “have a life.” There are a lot of great schools that do not require that you load up on AP courses and start the non-profit that cures cancer. Choose.</p>
<p>“Should Miss Math Genius be rejected from XYZ-uber-school because she didn’t take Honors Spanish and so got a “NO” on the “most rigorous” question? Does that make sense?”</p>
<p>YES, it’s supply and demand. Elite schools have enough applications from kids who did well in both math and spanish therefore they don’t admit the girl in your example above.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As a practical matter, I don’t think this happens. The uber-elite colleges look holistically at the applicant, they are not comparing the class-by-class selections of applicants. I do not think they will care that the math genius took the minimum foreign language requirement when her genius lies in math.</p>
<p>
Well, yeah, if there’s another math genius who did take Honors Spanish. This is like asking if a pole vaulter should be denied the Olympic gold medal just because he can’t jump as high as somebody else.</p>
<p>No, this is like asking if a pole vaulter should be denied a spot on the olympic team because her or she can’t run hurdles as fast as somebody else. Yes, there are students that do well in all subjects, but that doesn’t mean that they are the ONLY students qualified to attend XYZ-uber-school. Thankfully, ad coms at these schools are not that narrow-minded.</p>