Waiting For Superman - Movie ReveiwsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #movies5 years ago

How bad are schools in the United States? To say they are "bad" doesn't do the term justice. Things have gotten rotten. Davis Guggenheim's documentary examines the dropping position of US schools among industrialized nations and exposes the many failure factories called High Schools in the United States. With over 2,000 schools posting abysmal graduation and college matriculation rates, it is no wonder the tech industry has to go overseas to find qualified workers. It is unbelievable that we don't have enough skilled workers looking for work to fill our own job vacancies.

Waiting for Superman is a personal documentary. While facts and figures get sterile or overwhelming, personal stories have a way of bringing the point home. It is always easy for a documentary to slant a position to its point of view, but with education, I don't think there is much need to slant. The problems facing the education system are examined in this film along with solutions. The solutions come in the form of alternate education models that are working. This film examines those models along with five families who are hoping to win lotteries just to get their children into a successful school system. What better indictment of the status quo than a mother who is willing to send her son to a school forty-five minutes away, or a grandmother willing to allow her grandson to attend a boarding school? Putting a face on the problem drives the point home.

Among the faces I saw in this film were some that did not appeal to me. One was the President of the American Teacher's Federation, Randi Weingarten. It is astounding to see a powerful union boss speaking charismatically about helping children, while failing them with policies that allow bad teachers to retain their jobs. I have a question for Ms. Wiengarten. "How did the children benefit from your involvement in keeping the new DC pay structure from ever getting to a vote?" Were you afraid that a majority of teachers may have favored pay incentives over tenure? You stated that this is about the children while claiming that it benefits them to avoid competition between teachers. How exactly does that work? I would assert that Weingarten and her ilk are cowards. They are afraid of changing the status quo because it threatens their very existence. No, ma'am...this is not about the children. It is about power (which is why the ATF and NEA combined, donate more money to national elections than any other lobby...ninety percent of it going to Democrats).

After exposing the unconscionable failures protected by the Unions (like the New York rubber room where teachers are kept while they are investigated...at a cost of one hundred million dollars per year to the tax payers), Guggenheim examines successful educational models. Among the models is a charter school in New York created by Geoffrey Canada. Canada spent years fighting for reform before starting his own school in an under-performing District. The school has success rates in the nineties, exceeding not only nearby schools, but outperforming the best schools. Canada describes his own motivations while demonstrating concepts that work.

The personal faces of this story engage viewers and make the issue personal. A film about education is bound to be personal anyway, because almost everyone has a family member in school. But the individual stories that cover a variety of income brackets and educational backgrounds put a personal touch on the issue. I was deeply disappointed when my "favorites" failed to win their respective lotteries. It is a sad state when students who want to excel are not given a choice. Reducing someones future to a lottery is demeaning and unfair. I am a proponent of school choice, which I feel will open doors, especially to children from families with limited income. Having my own roots in the failed Detroit School system, I understand the importance of having a choice.

Guggenheim also spends time interviewing Michelle Rhee and tracking the progress of the DC public schools. The DC schools are the very model of failure. Rhee had the audacity to change the structure of the central office, laying off bureaucrats to free money up for nurses and art teachers in the individual schools. Decentralizing the District was a good first step, followed by many other reforms that were met with stiff resistance. Among them was a revolutionary new concept. Changing the rules of tenure in favor of a performance based structure. The teacher's union would not even allow the individual teachers to vote on the measure. By blocking the vote, it seems to me that the unions not only failed the children, they failed the teachers. The under-performing teachers are potentially feeding failing students into classes with good teachers, who have to work much harder to get their students to succeed. So who benefits here? It is the epitome of doing the same thing, the same way, and expecting a different result (the definition of insanity).

So what is Waiting for Superman all about? I have read attacks on this film that appear to view this film as anti-teacher. It was not. It did have a strong anti-union slant. But that is a necessary component when it is the unions that stand between the children and progress. It is also about a few bad teachers who the unions protect at the expense of the children. It is about centralized systems that are too bureaucratic to succeed. It is about individuals that strongly want a voice in their children's education. It is about successful models that can serve as a foundation for improving our situation. It is about the futility of fighting powerful unions that contribute more money to national elections than any other lobby. Why does anyone need that much power? They are lobbying for the status quo. Change will not come until enough people stand up and demand it. Sadly, that may never happen at the expense of our own future. I hoped this film would serve as a catalyst for change. So far, there hasn't been much change. More likely, the unions will continue to dictate the terms of education and wrap it in the banner of doing what is best for the children. Here is an idea...listen to what the CHILDREN and THEIR families want. That might be a good place for the unions to start if they are true to their constantly iterated goal of helping the children. Waiting for Superman doesn't just examine problems...it offers solutions. An excellent documentary. 8/10.

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What a great review! My friend, who happens to be a teacher saw this movie and told me about it a while ago. It made her feel better about our education system. The US education system is one of the worst I've ever heard of and makes no sense at all. Even when I see schools in movies I just don't get it. Even simple thing like studying every class with different people seems like an odd choice to me.

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I don't know much about the US education system below college level, but I've always taken it fo rgranted that it was tons better than mine. Perhaps I need to take a look at this documentary.

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