[Reader-list] The Overscheduled Child

[Chintan Girish Modi]

>From http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/movies/10race.html

*The Overscheduled Child*

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

In “Race to Nowhere,” the first-time filmmaker Vicki Abeles tries to
condense a Hydra-headed problem — America’s overstressed, overscheduled,
overcompetitive school kids — into a single, clear narrative. The bad news
is that she doesn’t entirely succeed; the good news is that she and her
co-director, Jessica Congdon, admirably convey the complexity of the issue
with considerably more compassion than prescription.

Spurred by the medical and emotional problems of her own three children, Ms.
Abeles embarked on a deeply personal inquiry into the insanely hectic lives
of too many of our offspring. Rushing from class to sports practice, from
community work to homework, and relying increasingly on stimulants and sleep
deprivation, these kids seem more pressured than the average C.E.O.
Documenting consequences that range from depression to eating disorders to
suicide, the film’s medical professionals share Ms. Abeles’s alarm and her
awareness that blame, if it exists, is systemic and with little current
incentive to change.

Packed with educators, parents, authors and articulate youngsters, “Race to
Nowhere” reaches out to children hounded by a confluence of circumstances:
parental fears of a disappearing middle class; an emphasis on unrealistic
performance standards (the bell curve is not a fantasy); a teach-to-the-test
curriculum that favors memorization over critical thinking; and the
competitiveness of college entrance requirements. (Interestingly, the social
pressures of adolescence are barely addressed.)

“We all have to get off this treadmill together,” says the author and
adolescent-medicine specialist Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, and the film’s Web site
(racetonowhere.com) is keen to assist. Like the makers of the excellent
high-school-based MTV reality series, “If You Really Knew Me,” Ms. Abeles
believes that benevolent intervention is an adult’s most powerful tool.

“Race to Nowhere” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Pills,
plagiarism and parental bereavement.


NOTE: For more on the film, check http://www.racetonowhere.com/