Staying above the fray: Community weighs in on "Race to Nowhere"

Plano resident Michele Davé is a documentary junkie. So when she heard about Jasper High School screening of "Race to Nowhere" last week, she had to make it a family affair.

Davé is a mother of three, as well as the vice president of programs for the Plano ISD Council of PTAs. With children in the fourth, sixth and ninth grades, the opportunity to learn about the state of today's children and the ways in which increased testing and competition has pushed them to the brink, through "sound, scientific research" was something Davé said every parent should see.

"I think we're being misguided. People think they're doing the right thing but they're not," said Davé , whose daughter attends Jasper High. "A lot of parents feel like they're not getting their money's worth if their kids are not coming home with a mound of homework. That time where kids used to wander around the neighborhood or lie on their bed and listen to music, that idle time is not seen as important anymore. I think that we're killing that by over testing and piling on too much homework and stress."

"Race to Nowhere" features heartbreaking stories of young people across the country and educators who are burned out and worried that students aren't developing the skills needed for the global economy.

After speaking to experts, filmmaker Vicki Abeles said she was stunned to learn of the soaring rates of youth depression, suicide, cheating and dropping out. As she began speaking with students, families and teachers, she realized how widespread the problems were, how they crossed economic and geographic lines, and how powerless parents felt in the face of current education policies focused on high stakes tests and competitive college admissions.

Jasper High Principal Courtney Gober chose to show the documentary after watching it last year when Plano ISD showed it. In addition to last week's public screening, all of Jasper's 10th grade teachers and students will watch it next week while, ironically, its ninth grade counterparts will be busy with state exams.

By watching the documentary, Gober hopes he can help relieve some of the inner pressures that students place upon themselves to be "the best of the best."

"It's a cycle of kids feeling a lot of pressure to have high GPAs, they feel they need to have those because that's what colleges say they want," Gober said. "On top of all that, colleges also want them to be well-rounded kids and participate in other activities. They have all these things going on and all this is pressure to have the perfect profile for colleges."

At Gober's request, Jasper -- which holds ninth and 10th grade students and filters into Plano West for 11th and 12th grade --promoted a "no homework due Friday" policy. The idea, Gober said, is to give families at least one evening in which they do not have to stress over a deadline.

"It really got me thinking," he said. "At Jasper, and many schools in Plano and North Texas, 60 percent of kids want to be in the top 10 percent and, as a result, these kids take as many honors and AP classes as they can to boost their GPA. As a result of that they have lots of homework, then they sort of get frustrated with the school because they're up to their eyes with all this homework"

In addition to the no homework policy, Gober also has plans to convert a portion of the school's cafeteria next year into a gaming area, where students can take a five-minute break from their studying during lunch time. The area will feature a ping-pong table, chess and checkerboards and a foosball table. The idea, Gober said, is to keep kids out of their notebooks during the lunch hour and encourage them to take advantage of some stress-free time.

"For a lot of them, it's just go, go, go," he said. "We're not trying to reform the whole Metroplex here. We're just trying to make sure people are aware of what's going on in their student's life. "

Justin Hughes also attended the screening at Jasper High and, as a counselor at Haven Counseling in Dallas, sees teenagers and adults who are battling substance abuse, relational and family problems, and anxiety and depression.

While Abeles asserts that the learning epidemic may span both economic and geographic borders, Hughes said demographics do have a hand when it comes to the types of problems students are experiencing internally. The higher the income area, the bigger the push to be "a jack of all trades but a master at nothing," he said.

"A person's environment definitely has a huge effect on them," Hughes said. "There's certainly a culture that focuses on learning to test instead of learning to face real life problems in the U.S. in general and in Dallas in particular."

As with homework overload, testing crazes, college prep and extracurricular pressures, it is important that parents choose their child's well being over the herd mentality that is, in its own way, pushing kids too far, Hughes said.

"For some families, it's going to be a very tough decision of saying, 'although my culture says if we don't pass this test, my child is worthless, I choose to think differently,'" he said. "'We are going to be resourceful enough to go from there.'"

Lisa Morse is a math teacher at Jasper and has been teaching for a decade. Over the years, she said, pressures and expectations for students have increased, both in terms of academics and extracurricular activities.

"I definitely think we have to set the bar high, we have to have high expectations, but I believe you have to have a limit to that, as well," Morse said. "Kids need to be kids. It's like that one student in the documentary said, we are robbing them of their childhood."

Morse commended Gober's initatives, calling them a "step in the right direction," and said many teachers on campus have tried changing their point of view, as well.

"I think you have to have some sort of homework, some sort of practice," she said. "We need to give kids some sort of break, though. There is a lot pressure on them. Sometimes it's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Each kid is different and that's great; we don't want them all to be the same."

While Davé said her children experience the typical stresses of school life, family dinners and "down time" help keep tensions low. They also pride themselves in a more laid back approach they feel helps their children reach their fullest potential.

"Our mantra is, 'was that your best effort?' And if it was, that's great," Davé said. "Plano is a very competitive district and a top district, and I like that a lot, but sometimes it's difficult to maintain that sense of balance. There are a lot of labels and the unfortunate thing is, when parents talk about it kids hear it. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing the best I can and yet it's hard to sort of always stay out and above fray."

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