Waiting for 'Superman'

Plot synopsis:
Geoffrey Canada describes his journey as an educator and his surprise when he realizes upon entering adulthood that Superman is a fictional character and that no one is powerful enough to save us all.
Throughout the documentary, different aspects of the American public education system are examined. Things such as the ease in which a public school teacher achieves tenure, the inability to fire a teacher who is tenured, and how the system attempts to reprimand poorly performing teachers are shown to affect the educational environment. Teaching standards are called into question as there is often conflicting bureaucracy between teaching expectations at the school, state, or federal level.
The film also examines teacher's unions. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools (the district with some of the worst-performing students at the time), is shown attempting to take on the union agreements that teachers are bound to, but suffers a backlash from the unions and the teachers themselves.
Statistical comparisons are made between the different types of primary or secondary educational institutions available: state school, private school, and charter school. There are also comparisons made between schools in affluent neighborhoods versus schools in poorer ones. Since charter schools do not operate with the same restrictions as public institutions, they are depicted as having a more experimental approach to educating students.
Since many charter schools are not large enough to accept all of their applicants, the selection of students is done by lottery. The film follows several families as they attempt to gain access to prominent charter schools for their children.

Tags: depressing, sentimental

Review:
The system should reward the teachers, parents and children who do want to teach and learn.Regardless of your politics or personal involvement in education, I commend Mr. Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") and Mr. Gates and Ms. Rhee for rocking the boat ...
I can't remember the last time I got so caught up in a documentary.This movie seeks to do two things, 1) to show how bad bad public education in this country is and to suggest some of the reasons (the two teachers unions, the administrative bureaucracy, etc.); 2) to suggest a solution.It does 1) in a devastatingly powerful fashion.
yey we're #1!) David Guggenheim's documentary shifts between personal stories of (mostly) inner-city kids whose parents want their kids to do well but are doubtful for good reason about whether their kids will get the fair chance, and try ultimately to get them into charter-school systems that rely on a lottery system of picking who gets in and who doesn't.This makes up the emotional core of the picture, and it's a good one.
Where things get both interesting and tricky is when Guggenheim gets into the main issue at hand: what's wrong with our countries schools, especially in inner-city/urban ones like in Harlem and DC where there are "Drop-Out Factories" created in part by students in bad neighborhoods but more-so by teachers who just don't give a good-damn about teaching.
They show how the teachers do give a damn about the students, and the better attention paid - and as we see teaching is a kind of art form that one can master - the better the students.But doing a little research before or after the film shows that Guggenheim, for all of his good (and they are good) intentions, omits or shallowly covers certain things, such as the Kipp charter schools (it's mentioned only briefly in the doc but 1 out of 5 Charter schools really work best at what they do, and not mentioned is how kids that don't keep up in the first couple of years just get kicked out, period), and about the nature of public school teachers.
To me it would appear to be a vicious cycle where both sides need reform for true change.But Waiting for Superman, a film meant to rile up the audience into attention like Guggenheim's previous doc An Inconvenient Truth, is useful as a way to get people who have no idea what's going on what is going on, at least the cliff-notes version of it.
The doc could go even further with being an activist-style position trying to affect change, or give clearer facts; there's a lot of cute-quirky animation to bring along the information, though the interviewees selected are kind of cherry-picked for its ultimate effect.It is, in short, a good documentary but not quite a great one, and will be a big upper or a big downer depending on who you are in the audience, if you have kids, if you're a teacher, or if you're in the "rubber room" in one of the NYC schools..
The documentary focuses on five public school children who represent inner-city kids with broken families and day-to-day financial struggles (except for a student of middle-class parents in the Silicon Valley).
I would like to see the teacher's unions come up with their own documentary - then let's see the OTHER side of the story.Viewers beware of this movie, but most of you won't will you, because you have bought into the system, you have allowed the programers to delude you into thinking the education system should all be about reading, writing and maths..
Wow. This ranks as one of the most heavy-handed, one-sided, emotionally manipulative pieces of propaganda masquerading as a "documentary" that I've ever seen.For all the things that are wrong with the American education system that desperately need to be addressed, this movie's sole intent is to bash overworked, underpaid teachers by calling them out as "bad" and to vilify unions as self-interested organizations of malicious intent.Are there "bad" apathetic teachers?
But I am very sensitive to things that are created to harm Children, and that is the intent of "Waiting for Superman." As a former Chicago Public School teacher, I can tell you exactly why you should not believe the views propagated in this film.1) Private schools do not teach anywhere near the amount of students that public schools teach.
4) Because of the events listed in points 3 & 2, a formerly passing public school becomes both over crowded & underfunded, not able to accommodate the extra students nor hire more teachers due to lack of funding, as a result this passing school fails & is eventually closed, causing the opening of yet another charter school & the overcrowding & closing of another public school.5) This entire system violates federal law, specifically the Homestead Act, which guarantees one section of the community (lot 32 if I recall correctly) to be set aside for free public education.6) When you bus students to overcrowded schools, you tend to mix gangs.
They are teaching there because they care & think they can make a difference, "Waiting for Superman" turns people against those teachers & throws them in bed with a system that makes it even harder for people like me to educate the people that most of America wants to ignore.Don't blame the teachers nor the public school system.
It begins with every cliché of the US education documentary: the brilliant black educator who thought he could change the schools in a few years and finds out how hard it is; a black-and-white film clip from the Fifties of stuffy white men looking like idiots (really, what's that supposed to tell us?); and cute, earnest inner-city kids with great Moms who are just having a hard time in this economy.
Maybe he examines them later in the film, but 75% of the problems of American public education would be solved if we closed the private schools and forced the children of the upper-middle- class to go to school with inner-city kids.
Waiting for 'Superman' is a documentary from Davis Guggenheim, the director of 2006's An Inconvenient Truth, that examines the faults and labyrinthine bureaucratics of America's educational government, a government more interested in protecting the jobs and pay salaries of lazy educators in public schools, rather than properly educating the average child.The film isn't all that shocking.
At times it even feels like he's stating the obvious, and even repetitious in regards to sub-par school houses he points fingers at.But the film's strongest impact comes from the case studies of five children, who show strong potential, but their parents struggle to set them up with the necessary education, placing them at the mercy of lotteries that determines the lucky few who get to attend successful charter schools.
And have vouchers so these poor inner city moms have a chance to get their kids into Catholic Schools that do a much better job for much less money per child, not because of religion (I have never had the gift of faith myself), but because of parent support and a wonderful lack of political correctness.I am a public school teacher, my students rock the house (we beat our school and all of the other schools in our district) with their STAR scores (California's across the board testing system that the Unions of course, hate), which makes me a "good" teacher, I guess.
Waiting for "Superman" To avoid waiting for Superman, simply destroy train tracks spanning a ravine minutes before a trainload of school kids are scheduled to cross it.And while the school children in this documentary are not on a doomed locomotive, they are headed for disaster.By following five fledgling students (Daisy, Bianca, Emily, Francisco and Anthony) as they attempt to win admittance into an innovative school headed by a new breed of educator, Geoffrey Canada, filmmaker Davis Guggenheim puts the dysfunctional American school system under the microscope, exposing its pitfalls, prejudices and apathetic faculty that does little to inspire, let alone, educate.While it takes direct aim at the teacher's union, this sad, shocking snapshot of inner-city schools is not against instructors, but the ineptitude of an antiquated system.In fact, if it isn't fixed soon, the only career open to these lazy, uneducated students will be that of public school teacher.
We've had 8 years of a presidency which strove to destroy the Dept of Education, and which stiffed state requests for funds.The either-or nonsense of bad neighborhoods being caused by bad schools OR bad neighborhoods causing bad schools prevents people from seeing the other--real--causes of bad neighborhoods: outsourced jobs, decrease in jobs available since deregulation of banks and corporations, red lining, removal of work places to suburbs, decaying infrastructure, politicians too cowardly to call voters' resistance to school taxes for what it is.The scapegoating of the Teachers' Union, and the idolization of a Bush-appointed school superintendent who saved money by closing many schools, are equally ridiculous.
Of course, the impoverishment of the public schools due to not having money to reduce class size, or to hire teachers who are dedicated, went unmentioned.And who emerges as the major contributor to educational philosophy in the US--Bill Gates, richer than God and as sanctimonious as he is devious.Finally, just how are the students at the charter schools chosen?
And most touching is seeing how this doc follows the actual lives of five students who are trying to leave the public education system for a better life.We all know why that many schools fail in the public system as shown in the film many kids are wrongly labeled as public schools don't teach any culture.
And director Davis Guggenheim really proves these points with his footage of the kids and yet many times it's not the problems of society and broken homes much of it could be blamed on a broken and crooked system of the public school board systems.Telling is how bad teachers are kept employed all over the country because of tenure and the big bad baby is teacher unions who refuse to fire them, and also sickening is how much importance that schools place on national test as it does not actually measure kids abilities and talents.
However the downside to this is many charter schools are expensive as many kids have parents who can't afford them and as shown in the film their only hope is a draft lottery to get into these schools for a better education.Like it or not "Waiting for Superman" is telling and revealing it proves the public education system needs change as it's time for bad teachers to go test them fire them and cut teacher unions!
Director Davis Guggenheim shows and makes a strong statement that even though different the best way to go is private charter schools, even though it's not possible for many of the poor still it provides a change for hope in this ever changing high tech world of technology as a little change to the education system may just be the only hope.
Now it is possible that the answers in this film are wrong...but people getting angry because it questions the status quo (which is broken) is just inexplicable.This documentary is effective because it takes on one aspect of the problems with the system and illustrates it by showing poor families that want better.
Particularly dishonest is the fact that Guggenheim never mentions the tens of millions of dollars of private money that has poured into the Harlem Children's Zone, the model and superman we are relentlessly instructed to aspire to." — Rick Ayers, Adjunct Professor in Education at the University of San Francisco[23]Author and academic Rick Ayers lambasted the accuracy of the film, describing it as "a slick marketing piece full of half-truths and distortions."[23] In Ayers' view, the "corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public" have employed the film to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education", while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations."[23] The film does, however, note that since 1971, inflation-adjusted per-student spending has more than doubled, "from $4,300 to more than $9,000 per student," but that over the same period, test scores have "flatlined." Ayers also critiqued the film's promotion of a greater focus on "top-down instruction driven by test scores", positing that extensive research has demonstrated that standardized testing "dumbs down the curriculum" and "reproduces inequities", while marginalizing "English language learners and those who do not grow up speaking a middle class vernacular."[23] Lastly, Ayers contends that "schools are more segregated today than before Brown v.
Ravitch writes that many charter schools also perform badly, are involved in "unsavory real estate deals" and expel low-performing students before testing days to ensure high test scores.[24] The most substantial distortion in the film, according to Ravitch, is the film's claim that "70 percent of eighth-grade students cannot read at grade level", a misrepresentation of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.[24] Ravitch served as a board member with the NAEP and notes that "the NAEP doesn't measure performance in terms of grade-level achievement", as claimed in the film, but only as "advanced", "proficient", and "basic".
To be certain, college professor Rick Ayers complained that the documentary essentially calls for breaking the teachers' union - which it blames for allowing teachers to keep their jobs no matter how poorly they do - and replacing public education with charter schools.Like I said, the documentary's main achievement is raising the issues..
The message of the movie is frighteningly undeniable: the American education system is failing, and it's largely due to two things: 1) a generation of kids being raised by their drop-out parents or stressed-out grandparents (who now value what they missed); and 2) bad teachers who CANNOT be fired due to union regulations and tenure.
Such tactics that leave out strong opposing arguments compromise every time, but documentary makers just can't seem to understand that even powerful counter arguments can help any just cause.WFS's real strength is showing parents and children fighting to get a good education, still one of the riches of modern civilization that needs no superman, just a committed populace that knows good teachers are the salvation of any school system..
In the documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim , "Waiting For Superman," the question who is to blame and what can be done is raised as they follow the course of a couple of children who are trying to enter a charter school via a lottery.
According the film, in order to begin the process of restoring the public education system there is a need for, "quality teacher, more class time, world class standards, high expectations, real accountability" (Guggenheim, "Waiting for 'Superman' (2010)") It all boils down to teacher have to be the very best, people have to be willing for change, communities have to commit to the schools, and the people must be willing to act.The documentary, "Waiting For Superman," told a very the very compelling stories of a group of students attempting to escape the flawed public education system while also underlining the issues in the system and why it is not succeeding.
We get to see how some dedicated parents try to get their children into charter schools, so that they might escape an education system that would probably lead them to a very dark future.I think that the movie mostly remains unbiased, giving you statistics and facts to support all claims and opinions, which makes it a very good learning experience.
The movie looks at the problems with out public school system and the creation of charter schools to provide better education for many students in our country.
Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the film analyzes the failures of the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into a charter school.
Sorry that my previous review was removed because I told the truth.The film was terribly distorted as one comes away with the idea that all children are eager learners ready to soak up the knowledge that teachers are trying to impart.Our urban school centers are in complete disarray because of the complete lack of discipline.Why aren't Michelle Rhee, Arnie Duncan, Randi Weingarten and other supposed educators in the know teaching?
Meaning, these kids still went on to be successful in the public schools...just as successful as their Charter School counterparts.Lastly, the one thing the movie absolutely ignores is that the United States is the only country in the world that gives students the ability to find their educational stride at any stage of their life.
The film primarily focuses on the issues regarding the obstacles presented by the teacher union, the progression of the education system in America, and emphasizes the capabilities of a charter school.
The filmmakers did not show a few important things: * The large number of successful public schools * The large number of charter schools with low test scores (they gloss over this stat in the film) * The charter schools that kick out low performing students to maintain good school averages * The countries with better test scores that don't fire teachers or privatize education * The research about how a student's home life has more to do with their test scores than his or her teachersWhile the movie points at a broken system that definitely requires action, we need the whole truth.
Microsoft Propaganda Ruins "Waiting for Superman"(http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/)The education documentary "Waiting for Superman" starts off decently enough, and its message of highly paid public school teachers who cannot teach is a pretty good explanation of what everyone has long suspected, yet the film takes a wrong turn somewhere that makes you realize that the viewer has been set up.
Davis Guggenheim, documentary filmmaker of Waiting for 'Superman', investigates the ways in which the American public education system is failing our children.