Race to Nowhere

Periwinkle
Mon, 02 May 2011 18:54:16 +0000

@erlanger, I do disagree with you that it’s only “kill the messenger.” If it’s true that her children were facing 4 hours of commuting time every day, that’s a material fact she should have presented in her film, especially a film on the effects of stress on children. Remember, she kept returning to her own family’s experience of stress in the film. Not to include that part of their daily schedule was deceptive (if indeed it’s true.)

I think the college Common App causes much of the stress high school students face today. Allowing students to apply to so many schools effectively multiplies the applicant pool, while the number of colleges doesn’t increase.

Denise Pope’s book, Doing School, and Alexandra Robbins’ The Overachievers, are better treatments of the effects of stress on high school students, in my opinion.