@katiecouric: Race to Nowhere

Katie Couric interviews Vicki Abeles, director of the documentary "Race
to Nowhere," about the high levels of stress and fatigue in U.S. schools and

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cbsepisode
• katie couric
• race to nowhere
• documentary
• kids
• school
• children
• grades
• Vicki Abeles
• teens
• adults
• homework
• cbs

[yoshinibble123]

To be honest, the opinions expressed about the 'hindrance' that technology has on learning is somewhat exaggerated. It's perhaps one of the most polarising of topics that you can present to parents and youth.

Still, having watched the film, I, as a 17 year old secondary school (high school) student taking the IB Diploma, educational stress is something that certainly needs to be addressed.

[Mary75801]

My daughters high school has one upped the level. We have IB diploma for those who AP is just not hard enough? Also, sadly teachers do not know how their students are doing as they do not grade the tests or papers anymore.

[MrKookoobananas]

it's the opposite for me. Maybe it's because I live in Toronto? But either way, when I was in the eighth grade, I was failing two classes, and I had an 67% average. Once I hit the ninth grade, my average went up by 10%. I feel as if my school actually TEACHES us, instead of making us memorize. We have to be independent thinkers.

[purplehazedkisses]

Junior year was a nightmare. I never thought I could get that low, and I couldn't get lower. I had reached the abyss. I now thought I could seriously never get back to how I was before all this.. And now senior year has rolled around and I've started to get bad news..

[purplehazedkisses]

All the while, I was in regular classes. Not one single honors. I got my first D+ in math (Alegbra 2). I was in a science class that was easier than my 8th grade biology class (with really intellectually challenged people.) It continued this way for the rest of the year, with a C in English and math, and in the one honors class, English, that I managed to get into the second semester I wound up with a D+.

[purplehazedkisses]

The classes I had taken at my other school were not recognized by the new school and because I was already failing kind of, I had a hard time proving that I was supposed to be in higher classes, and I couldn't vouch for myself. All of junior year turned out to go worse than 9th and 10th combined. Also, this was the first year where my grades were in letters (I translated them before). I got my first F at the end of a quarter in English, which used to be my best subject.

[purplehazedkisses]

In short, sophomore year was a disaster. By then, I had been clinically diagnosed as having depression. This crisis was degenerative. By the end of 10th grade, because I was doing so poorly, my parents decided to take me out of that school and put me in an American public school, which for me was a shock. I started 11th grade at a public high school in my town and was totally lost and inept at how this new school and system would work.

[purplehazedkisses]

Anyways, my point is that once I got to high school, my work performance totally dropped and became someone who was not me. However, part of this was triggered by a quite depressing social crisis that hit at the end of 7th grade- and I was still fine in 8th grade. And then in 9th grade, I entered a depression. I started getting B's first, then C's, but I guess my head was somewhat still above water, and then, in 10th grade, I just started sinking further down.

[purplehazedkisses]

I have to say the French educational system is much more challenging than the American one, which may seem totally contradictory and opposed to everything Vicki and her movie is trying to say in this interview that the U.S. has a more challenging system than any other country. I have lived the dual-system and can tell you for a FACT that just the French one is greater than or equal in intensity to the American one.

[purplehazedkisses]

I think what this woman did is very proactive and admirable and I agree with a lot of the things she says in this interview because I myself am a victim of particular instances she is describing. All my life through middle school, I was a very good student and I had almost all straight A's. I went to a private bilingual school in NY that doesn't really follow the American education system and curriculum but the French education system and curriculum combined with part of the American curriculum.