Tickets Sold Out for the RCDS screening of "Race to Nowhere"

The Rumson Country Day School (RCDS) will host a SOLD OUT screening of Race to Nowhere,  a film about how a trend toward intense academic pressure is affecting the health, happiness and future success of today's schoolchildren. This documentary showcases the importance of critical thinking in the classroom rather than memorization for standardized testing.

A discussion will be held after the screening with Thomas Pearson, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Monmouth University, and Pete Righi, Superintendent of Rumson-Fair Haven High School.

The documentary is the result of several wake-up calls of mother of three, Vicki Abeles, seeing her children struggle with school work and balancing both school and extracurricular activities. The toll taken on her children included panic attacks, lack of sleep, and stress, forcing her to rush her 12-year-old daughter to the hospital one day for a stress related illness.

Abeles then took it upon herself to reveal a problem occurring in many school districts, young children becoming stressed by school work but not retaining the information. Instead of learning the curriculum, students are pressured to perform well on standardized tests causing them to only regurgitate information rather than critically learn the material.

RCDS has chosen to host a screening of this film to encourage all parents to become actively involved in their children’s educational experience. The documentary provides beneficial information for parents of any student in public or private schools, emphasizing the need for critical thinking skills in the classroom.

The screening will be at RCDS on Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m. for parents and the general public. Tickets are currently sold out.