After blogging about it for weeks, I went to see Race to Nowhere last night at my local elementary school.
A lot has been said about this movie, but what struck me is the mistrust parents now feel toward schools. The film explains how schools are making kids sick with stress-related illness. The message: parents have to protect their children by being aware of the academic and extracurricular pressures and stepping in, sometimes putting their children in another school, and always placing less emphasis on homework and achievement and more on family time and balance.
What a sad state of affairs. When we were young our parents trusted schools. They believed that schools had children’s best interests at heart, and sent us off every morning with nary a thought.
So who’s a helicopter parent? Race to Nowhere says that parents need to be swooping in, protecting our kids, because schools and colleges have other agendas.