Local Schools Ask: Is It High Achievement Or A 'Race to Nowhere'?

On Monday, District 225 released the results of a survey of Glenbrook North and South students that showed that 99 percent graduate from high school and 98 percent go on to college.

The statistics sound like great news for district parents, staff and students.

But according to the documentary film Race to Nowhere, which was screened the following Tuesday before hundreds of parents at Glenbrook North, there might be a hidden danger to high achievement.

In the film that has been making waves with screenings in school districts around the country, director Vicki Abeles argues that kids are under too much pressure to keep up their grades, participate in extracurricular activities and get into a good college.

Through interviews with students, parents, psychologists and teachers, Abeles attempts to make the point that the pressure can rob kids of their childhood and lead to mental illness, cheating and abuse of prescription drugs like Adderall.

District 225 screened Race to Nowhere in conjunction with school districts 28, 27, 30 and 31.

The climax of the film comes when Abeles interviews Jane Marvin, whose daughter, Devon, committed suicide at age 13 in 2008. Marvin describes her daughter as a great student who always did well in school. The week before she died, she got an F on a math test.

“If you’ve always had ‘A’s, then there’s only one way to go, and that’s down, and that feels like a failure,” Marvin says in the film. “She did have this internal pressure.”

Panel discussion following the film pivoted around the scene with Marvin. Was there more to the story than a failed math test? And could pressure be, in some ways, a good thing?

“I think all of us would agree, we want our children to be happy, we want them to be healthy,” Principal Paul Pryma said. “The competition, especially where we live, is acute, and it sometimes is unhealthy.”

But, he said, while some segment of the area’s high school population felt the pressure of the students in the film, other kids actually might need to feel more of that stress.

Before opening up the floor to the parents, administrators and teachers on the panel, moderator JJ Hanley, a filmmaker herself, noted that there were dozens of people with speaking parts in the documentary.

“I lost count at 55 people,” she said.

And with so many voices chiming in, it’s easy for the viewer to feel overwhelmed, and lose the critical distance necessary to understand what’s really going on, she explained.

“The idea that this is an epidemic is fueled by this kind of filmmaking,” she said.

Panelist and Wood Oaks Junior High School Principal Marc Shaffer also questioned the film’s view of high achievement.

“We’re doing a lot of good things,” he said, citing the survey results that showed 99 percent of District 225 students graduate from high school. “Our districts don’t apologize for our rigor.”

Panelist Ruth Kraus, a psychologist, addressed the suicide in the film directly.

“It’s not just academics,” she said. “Suicide is multi-determined.”

Although she said that Devon Marvin’s suicide was most likely about more than a failing grade, Kraus did say there were lessons to be learned: kids should be taught that their self-worth is not attached to what they produce.

And furthermore, she said, parents should try to raise not necessarily happy children, but resilient children who can get a poor grade, feel upset about it and move on, all while maintaining self esteem.

“Praise the process, not the product,” she said.

Glenbrook North Assistant Principal Mike Tarjan echoed Kraus’ message, saying that he struggled with testing as a teen but now has a PhD and is very happy with where he wound up professionally.

“Students are excelling at things at different rates and that’s alright,” he said.

Tarjan said that despite the film’s concern over kids not having enough free time, he believed that being involved in activities is important.  

“At Glenbrook North, we educate for living,” he said. “If you’re going home at 3:00 you’re missing out.”

While Tarjan advocated for the importance of activities, Glenbrook North science teacher Jean Witty also spoke up for homework.

“As an educator,” she said, “I would like kids to be thinking science all the time.”

But, she noted, as a teacher, she also believed it was her responsibility not to assign homework just to assign homework but, instead, to know the best practices for doing so.

Parent panelist Denny Stidham said that sometimes it was parents who were more worried than their kids. A self-described overachiever, she said that was the situation with herself and her middle son.

While her son seemed content with Bs, she wondered if he was closing down options on colleges. When she confronted him, he told her not to worry, there were plenty of colleges to choose from and he was going to be OK.

“Are these measures of success his or mine?” Stidham said. “What we all want at the end of the day, and has been said again and again on this panel, is we all want our kids to be happy.”