Social Capital and the Race to Nowhere

I'm not sure how many other people in the class decided to attend the free screening of The Race to Nowhere by Peace Through Play, but it definitely put the Coleman article in a different perspective for me. The movie is an 85 minute or so documentary about the high degree of cheating, stress-induced illness, and inability to adapt that pervades the United States' school system. It demonstrates that there are two distinct kinds of social capital parents are capable of spending on their children, and one of them may actually lower human capital rather than increasing it.

The first kind of social capital increases by building a positive overall relationship with your children. Things like family game nights, dinner as a family, and other united activities increase this sort of capital. So long as this capital increases, children will become more productive as a result of being happier and wanting to please their parents. Students that have a positive outlook on their family and home life will likely perform better under stress knowing that their parents will support them no matter what.

The second kind of social capital, purely educational social capital, can result in decreased productivity and intelligence. If all the parent and child communicate about is school, homework, and getting into a good school, the stress can become unbearable for the younger party. If the relationship between the two is only about schoolwork a single poor grade can and probably will destroy the kid's sense of self-worth. As a result the student stresses out over every single assignment and thus decreases their emotional well-being, an important aspect of human capital that Coleman neglected in his study on high schools.

The film raised a lot of interesting questions about the American school system and the Coleman reading allowed me to get a different perspective on it than I had anticipated. I highly recommend the documentary to every one else in the class.