by Lydia Seaman

​Race to Nowhere is a film that explored the pressures that our current education system puts on students. The film was screened April 28th in the Auditorium.

“This movie was the perfect way to sum up how I feel about our education system. High school has caused me so much unnecessary stress. Now, looking back, I wish I didn’t push myself to hit points of overload, always feeling like I had to succeed, be an all around perfect kid, while still maintaining what looked like the idea that everything was okay. This movie made me realize how the only way something is going to get changed will be if tons of people are behind it. So I hope that more people will realize what detrimental effects our education system is having on students nowadays and want to make a change for the better as a result.”— senior Angela Dorry

“In the about 5 years since we first screened it and I think the issue has only gotten worse and students have only gotten more stressed out this year in particulare I have seen the most issues with stress and anxiety of any other year that I have taught in Westfield and the pressures just continue to build and I think its really important we open the dialogue with all parties involved: parents, students, teachers, guidance counsellors, adminisrators about what we can all do to be a part of the solution”— teacher Ms. Elizabeth Schultz

“As a parent stressful on my three kids. As a community I think the teachers should hear about this, and really watch this. It should be shown to every kid in the high school and even in the middle school, it should be shown in assemblies so every grade gets a chance to see it. Additionally it should be shown to administratiors” —- Parent Ms. Joann Lund

“I went to see Race to Nowhere with two of my friends and we all thought that it showed how stressed our kids are getting now with the huge amount of homework. The movie portrayed how homework turns kids off from wanting to enjoy school. The most ironic part of the evening was how after the movie ended my friends and I went straight back to talking about how much homework we still hadn’t finished yet.” —freshman Victoria Knaul

“Race to Nowhere did a great job of stressing the difficulties of being involved and invested in academics, athletics, and performing arts for students today. Some kids I know deal with stress by playing a sport to literally and figuratively sweat out the pressure.”— freshman Victoria Napolitano