Nationally, this film is playing as a quiet counterpoint to the better-known "Waiting for 'Superman,' " which focuses on failing urban schools. "Race to Nowhere" explores a different problem, the strains of competing in a pressure-packed academic culture that is highly test-driven and pushes some students to the edge.
The film is attracting notice from New York to California, where mom-turned-filmmaker, Vicki Abeles, a 48-year-old lawyer, launched the documentary project as she set out to understand the stresses her children, now ages 16, 14 and 11, were experiencing.
I would encourage all those interested in an informed and well made counter-point to the recent wave of educational documentaries about our so-called "failing" public school system to watch, rent, send for or sponsor a showing of this movie.
See what the NY Times, the Washington Post, and Oprah Winfrey, among others has to say about this new film.
