Volume 2, Number 29 November 17th, 2011

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“The Race To Nowhere” CSUF Screens Film That Challenges Education

Planning Commission Considers Tower

Students Protest Tuition Hikes at CSUF

Man Dies From Chemical Exposure

Council Approves Two New Housing Projects: Euclid & Amerige Heights

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Our high schools are broken. National scores compare poorly to other industrialized

nations but beneath that there is an un-derlying pressure to succeed that is ex-hausting the students, robbing them of their childhood, and even driving them to commit suicide. This is the narra-tive and the conclusion of a film and a movement that is sweeping across the country.

The documentary by Vicki Abeles is called “The Race To Nowhere”. It has received a stream of awards from film festivals, been discussed on all the major networks, and has already

inspired grass-roots which in turn have changed some schools policies. It doc-uments some of the strenuous learning conditions and pointless pressures that turn children into professional test takers. Abeles takes viewers to schools across the country to show students, educators, professors and business leaders who have been affected by the top-down approach to education. Comparisons are made child labor of the 19th century, to “An Inconvenient Truth”, and to “Food, Inc.”

Tickets are still selling at $10 around the country but the screening at CSUF was free. Attendees filled the audito-rium in the Humanities building.

One of the mothers in the film says that her kid’s childhood started out fine but once they reached the 9th grade the pressure started to ratchet up. More and more homework was assigned. Students are taking pharmaceuticals to focus their attention. They are lacking sleep.

Another mother said she had to pres-sure her daughter “so that she would have a choice”. Some of the pressures mentioned are as old as time. “She compares herself to her friends.” But the film alerts us particularly to the effects of standardized testing, and curriculum.

Students speak of cramming for two days to pass a test, and then forget-ting everything they learned after two weeks. They speak of “doing school”. Another student looks forward to when French classes are over and she will “never have to speak French again”.

The effectiveness of large quantities of homework is called into question. Some children have to pull a “second shift” to complete their daily tasks.

The film makes several mentions of the need for critical thinking, and that “smart” has many meanings. One com-

mentator says that “C students run the world” and then the film shows Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, William Branson and others and lists how little college each of them had.

A business professional says that new hires have been coached and tutored their whole lives. When they receive a new task in the office they say “how many paragraphs should I write?”

The grand picture is of a generation of children pumped through a teaching mill of machine-like precision that will force a list of achievement knowledge into the young child’s brain with little

concern for the results.

But the problem may be even deeper than the film suspects. After all, within the film, they point out that the stan-dardized testing is producing a batch of cookie-cutter minds incapable of in-tegrating their lessons into their lives, and that it is not satisfying the needs of the companies they start their profes-sional lives at. The film then concludes that the problem is the focus on suc-cess and achievement. One man claims we are turning children into little “pro-ducers” and a sequence shows a series of large homes and seems to say that wanting a nice home is the problem. But the children are not being prepared to succeed. They are being prepared to conform.

Yet the same film clearly points out that the system is failing at preparing for success. Perhaps the struggle to teach success wouldn’t be so traumatic if the schools weren’t so poor at it. After all, what parent doesn’t want their child to succeed?

“There is fear that our kids won’t have opportunities we had growing up and that they won’t be able to compete in a global economy.” --Vicki Abeles

The documentary has started a move-ment with a wide variety of educators and administrators involved. One no-table group in the film was the Blue Man Group who have started a school of their own. One of the founders of that school had one of the best lines in the film: “Children are born with this innate interest and wonder. We just have to not take it out of them.”

The movement is grass-roots in style and involves having “town hall” style meetings after the screening. Most of the audience stayed and were involved in a lively debate with horror stories of their own. The film seems to have come at a time

A new housing project located on Euclid Street between Valencia and Orangethorpe will become a reality thanks to a unanimous vote

of the Fullerton City Council.

The area is currently an automobile dealership, but the Citrus Park project will change that. About 59 attached and detached homes are planned for construction.

The City Council also approved a plan on a 10 acre project in the Amerige Heights area in west Fullerton, which would add more housing to the neighborhood near Sunny Hills High School and Raytheon.

Councilman Bruce Whitaker was the lone opponent to the Valencia Grove project.

The planned development is located at the south-east corner of Hughes Drive and Nicolas Avenue/Hydraflow Way.

Many Amerige Heights residents spoke in favor of the project, saying it would be beneficial for the neighborhood.

On Monday the planning commission for the Parks and Recreation department met to dis-cuss the First Night Celebration and a pos-

sible new cell phone tower at Ford Park. The First Night celebration is on schedule. It is the only one in Orange County so we may have visitors from afar. The cell tower was recommended to be approved. Many issues were discussed including affects on the children in the park, whether other companies would be able to use the tower, and weather more money could be acquired for rent from Verizon. What wasn’t discussed? The effect on Fullertonians who are or would like to be served by Verizon as customers.

CalOSHA is currently investigating a recent incident at Vista Paints where two men suf-fered from chemical exposure. Fullerton Fire

Department Division Chief, Julie Kunze, stated that paint strippers caused the chemical fumes that killed Roberto Magdariaga, 62, and put another 45 year old man into critical condition according to an ar-ticle by OC Register. CalOSHA spokesperson, Erika Monterroza, stated that the men were both working in a tank when the incident happened.

Sgt. Andrew Goodrich of Fullerton PD stated that the men were discovered by a co-worker who pulled the men from the tank along with the help of other fellow workers.

A proposed 9% tuition increase is being con-sidered by the Cal State University Board of Trustees. Undergraduate students at CSUF

will pay an additional $498 per semester next fall.

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by Alex Stouffer

Fullerton Celebrates Its Veterans

Williamson Ave Apartments Sold for $2.2 Million

Hundreds of Fullertonians lined up Harbor Boulevard and gathered at Hillcrest Park

Friday to salute America’s veterans.

Many veterans marched alongside ROTC cadets from Fullerton Joint Union High School District schools

at the 24th Annual Fullerton Veterans Day Parade & Ceremony that included a speech from CSM Clinton J. Reiss of the 19th Regimental Command, patriotic and military musical selec-tions sung by Kristen Romero and a placement of flowers at the city war memorial.

According to the CoStar Group, Eugenia Lipets sold her 10-unit apartment building at

508-512 William Ave. in Fullerton, CA to the Kim Family Trust for $2,295,000, or $229,500 per unit.

The 10,600-square-foot multifam-ily building located Northwest of

Bastanchury Rd. and Rose Dr. was constructed in 1991 on four-tenths of an acre in the Fullerton Office Complex submarket of Orange County. Unit amenities include washer/dryer hookups, two- and three-car garages, and patios. Only one unit was reported vacant at time of sale.

when many people have noticed that there is something wrong with our education system and are eager to do something about it.

The film offers many possible solu-tions and many more are discussed on their website online. They focus mostly on the abolishment of homework and reinstatement of holiday breaks. There

are studies that show that homework is ineffective beyond a certain amount. But what difference makes our teens perform at only average levels com-pared to other nations, but our colleges take the top nine out of ten spots in best colleges in the world? The answer to that question might help our Race to the Top.

“The Race To Nowhere” (cont)