Race to Nowhere' targets academic pressures

[marjar]

There’s a key scene in the documentary “Race to Nowhere” when a high school student asks, “If I can’t fail, and make mistakes, then how can I be expected to learn?”

Such a question might earn a stern slap on the wrist from “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua. But it’s an astute observation and one that drives home the main point of the film: that our preoccupation with testing and performance has undermined actual learning in the classroom, and may even be threatening the healthy development of kids, who frequently feel overwhelmed by the pressure to excel at all costs.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41744061/ns/nightly_news/

The link below is to a poll.


world-news.newsvine.com/_question/2011/03/08/6220843-is-a-culture-of-academic-overachievement-hurting-our-students-are-too-much-testing-and-homework-putting-our-kids-on-a-road-to-nowhere-as-the-title-of-the-documentary-film-suggests

[Loopdilou]

I'd love to see that!

[Loopdilou]

The news piece seems to miss the really important part of this though - the part about teaching to tests being stressful isn't the most damaging facet of teaching to tests. The facet that is damaging is that the children don't seem to be learning how to think, just how to memorize.

Thank goodness we play strategy games at home to get our kids' brains moving.