The Film 'Race To Nowhere'

3. The author compares today’s school system to that of the past, which concerned itself with teaching students,

Education has existed throughout history in one form or another. The process of passing down accumulated information from one generation to the next has been present in every human society, past and present. From the young listening to the stories of the elders around the hearths of the ancient world, to pupils being instructed in the alphabet in a one room schoolhouse on the American frontier, to the present day online teaching sessions; the tradition of teaching and learning has been a constant in the ever changing world. Education has been and continues to be used for many purposes, chief among them being the creation of an educated citizenry, the empowerment of that citizenry, and improvement of the

The author compares today’s school system to that of the past, which concerned itself with teaching students,

The main thesis in the book is how urban high school students face a challenging life despite the United States being a successful nation. The author has emphasized her thesis statement through examining the lives of diverse students’ background. She has put time and effort to study the normal lives of these students while they are students at “Mission High”. Mission high school is an urban school that is populated by African American, Asian American, Latino students and Immigrants students as well. 75 percent of the students come from a poor family background and 38 percent were English learners. The author’s main objective in this book was to advocate educational reforms from grassroot level. Many public schools in our nation does not meet needs of their students. The public schools in our nation has put a lot of time and emphasized the importance of state and national examinations rather helping students to discover their talents that would be beneficial in the 21st world century. The concepts of examinations in our nation has undermine the lives of many students since they were not able to develop their personal strength and weakness that could have lead them

Education gives common people the means to turning dreams into reality. Education allows common people to open up their minds to various possibilities, that will arise from becoming educated. But, yet there are times where our education systems do not uphold student/learners to a high norm. Although, problems with education systems rarely occur, inadequate performance in school can be feasible if there are issues within the child’s household. Nonetheless, students who face inconsistent dilemmas, fail since they attempt to solve both problems.

Learning is the process of gaining knowledge about various issues that affects our lives and wellbeing. The learning takes place each and every day of our lives at any place and time. There are two ways in which learning takes place. There is the formal learning and informal learning. In most cases, the formal learning is got from various learning institutions which indeed have set rules and regulations on how the running takes place. Various tests are set to help in gauging whether the student is ready for the next learning sequence or not. Institutions therefore has a bigger influence on formal learning and development of these students. On the account of the informal learning, this takes place within our social context. This form of learning is based on the societal norms and beliefs of various communities across the world. The teaching of the culture and norms that any society holds dear are indeed made possible through informal learning. Here, there is no need for a classroom which would mean that they can be done any place either a house, under a tree or as people interact in the societal setting. This paper looks into the impacts that the societal and institution constraints have on learning processes of various individuals. It gives much attention to the factual connotations of how these two sets of learning have impacted on the growth and development of various students across the world. Notably, this research uses the connotations from two articles that dwells on

Yet even with these realizations that delve into the deeper meaning of education, modern education is still calling for simple measurable outcomes and continues to be geared towards specific employment ideas. This model of education is blatantly inadequate though. Many students today will end up holding jobs not yet invented in fields not yet discovered, so the teaching of answers to today’s questions is utterly useless. Albert Einstein once said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” and this statement reigns true throughout time. To continue academic success, the education system needs to impart a mastery of one’s own mind that allows students to not only answer current questions but also to pose questions that will shape the future world.

Malcolm X once said “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”. From adolescence to adulthood almost every person is put through schooling. As one gets older in age, the education they obtain becomes more rigorous in order to stretch their minds far beyond two plus two or what color the sky is. The strategies of critically thinking and being able to analyze/decipher information in front is them is reinforced routinely in the educational system. With this being said, the purpose of education is to aid in enhancing one’s qualification, socialisation, and subjectification skills within the society regardless of how or where one’s education was obtained.

The fundamental flaws in our education system are exposed on a national level in Vicki Abele’s “Race to Nowhere” documentary. All of the compulsive, stressful, and competitive aspects of our society’s perception of education are put on full display by the use of an abundance of facts, intimate and nostalgic visuals, and personal anecdotes. To convince the audience to pay attention to the argument, the film gives concrete facts on the system. There are a variety of administrators, psychologists, and doctors giving similar views on how their patients have been mentally or physically damaged by the stress of school.

Social aging is referring to the changes in individual’s roles and relationship in the society as they age. There are many different theories concerning sociological aging. Social theories on aging examine the relationship between individual experiences and social institutions e.g., aging and retirement; aging and institutional care; aging and government policy etc (Barkan 2012). All have limitations, and some can be considered more than others when attempting to understand social changes in aging. Also individuals move through life surrounded by social support system. Some theories of aging such as, role theory, activity theory, modernization, etc. consist of different ways older adults transition through life such as, networks of relatives, friends, and organization that help provide emotional support and help in managing activities in daily living.

In order to make sense of what we are doing in our lives as individuals we must examine the history and institutions of society at large. This is what the sociological imagination does; it helps us define our purpose in society. For example, the education system today is “suffering from narration sickness”(Friere 71) meaning that students passively listen while the teachers narrate content. It is obvious to anyone that has gone through the formal education that there seems to be no real purpose to what we do in schools. There is less learning taking place, but rather depositing. The students are empty vesicles to which the teacher deposits information for the student to receive, memorize and repeat. Paulo Freire calls this type of learning the “banking” concept of education in his book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. In this banking system, oppression is a main characteristic of the

Education can be defined as a learning process in which a student and a teacher are involved. The work of the teacher is to pass on the message to the student while the student understands and applies what has been taught. It is also considered as a process of developing skills, knowledge and character of an individual. Education, whether formal or informal, has a function both to the individual and the society, these functions are either manifest or latent. There is a distinction between the manifest and latent functions in that the manifest functions are those that are intended whereas the latter are the unintended functions (Douglas, 2003).

The functionalist perspective has some advantages. These perspectives have been used more often than any other perspectives in the study of aging. Some of the earliest and most influential theories which gerontology used are, the disengagement theory, activity theory, and the modernization theory. These theories all rely on the functionalist and structure assumptions. But, in the 1980’s, gerontology has used another structure-functionalist principle called, the age stratification theory. There are many strengths which the age stratification theory. One advantage is, it has assisted to separate the age differences from age changes over the course of life. Secondly, “it highlights the impact of historical and social changes on individuals and cohorts,” according to Novak (34). Another advantage is, it emphasizes the relationship between aging and social structures. There are still several more advantages of using the functionalist perspective. One functionalist perspective advantage is it, “can explain the large-scale political change and the way which small groups maintain their structure,” stated Novak (32). In simpler terms this mean that, the perspective says

The education system has always been one to push students to absolute perfection, but at what costs do these measures become harmful, taxing and impractical? The film Race to Nowhere explores this concept and examines the pressures society has placed on students to fit this “one size fits all” definition of success. By presenting heart-wrenching stories of students who have suffered greatly from this “silent epidemic”, Race to Nowhere reveals to many an education system plagued by stress, depression, cheating, eating disorders, and sleep deprivation. An education system where there is emphasis on study to get the “A” instead of studying to truly retain the information. And lastly an education system where students aren’t truly learning. Through the use of visual elements, expert testimonials, and personal anecdotes Race to Nowhere is able to captivate viewers’ hearts, and cause them to redefine the true meaning of “success”.

Ever since the dawn of civilized life, societies have struggled to recognize the need to modify with the need of order. First of all, they reconstituted their education system. Finland and South Korea are significant examples to illustrate the situation. They are one of the countries where built up again after the extensive wars. (Palliser p. 4). Both of the countries have shown extraordinary progress after the war and astonished the world with their achievement. According to PISA (international student’s assessments), South Korea and Finland have one of the best academic skills from 57 nations. Nevertheless, that is not the only measure of what good education is.by contrast to South Korea, The majority of Finnish students do not takes standardized exam, students extremely do not compete with each other and they are not pressured by parents and teachers. Finnish student’s social skills are additionally evolved and all students