The Race to Nowhere

I went to the showing of "The Race to Nowhere " and let me start off by saying I highly recommend it. This was more then a movie, it was a documentary, it touched on so many different points, and it was amazing to see how school affects everyone in a community. Here the students told you how they felt, they told you about the truth behind the education system.
Here they talked about the stress students go through on a daily basis them trying to get straight A's, trying to be in all AP classes, having sports, clubs, community service, tutoring, working, and then hours of homework. They do not get a break, and they do not get to be kids. As one of the parents in the video said, "I'm afraid our children are going to sue us for stealing their childhood." They are so concerned with good grades, to go to a good college that they are not learning anything, they are memorizing and stressing themselves out to the point that they are getting sick.
One parent told her story about her 14 year old daughters suicide. She had no idea, there were no clues, no depressive behaviors, just on bad failing math grade. Students were saying they wouldn't eat because eating made them tired and they needed to go through the entire night doing homework. (Which at the high school level kids should be getting 9.25 hours a night, most are averaging about 6). The destructive behaviors to be perfect, to go nowhere is not acceptable.
Students in 3rd grade were coming home with hours of homework, and how can we justify that? Kids are not suppose to be in school for 7 hours, plus 5 hours of homework, at any age! They need to be outside, socializing, having a life, being a family, being active, not buried in a textbook all day. What kind of life is that? There were so many points brought up in this documentary, it is eye opening, and will make you remember, and want to change this for your children. We need to let them be kids, not doing 12+ hours of school work, we need to all ban together and let our children live, let them understand that there are multiple ways to be successful and that the true meaning behind being successful is being happy and healthy!