The power of this documentary is certainly the picture it paints of a broken and worsening education system in the U.S. It definitely makes me feel blessed to have received an education and almost inspired to do something to fix such a broken system.* The problem with doing something, is that everyone has a different take on what's wrong and on how to fix it. This film shows people who blame the conflicting federal, state, and district policies that create a web of confusion when it comes to regulations, expectations, and requirements. Others address the problem of tenured teachers protected by teacher's unions that don't allow for teachers to be fired for poor performance or rewarded for excellent performance, like any other job would, thus holding on to a majority of uncaring, uninvested teachers who are just there for a paycheck, watering down the handful of good teachers. Again, these are the viewpoints expressed in the film, not necessarily mine, but they certainly do a great job of convincing me that these are not just possible, but legitimate problems, even massive problems. Not that I've given a whole lot of thoughts on unions, but my initial thoughts on unions in general is that they protect the low end, poor worker, never do they inspire the great workers to do better. And when applying this to teachers and teaching, one has to question the use of teacher's unions at all. Now, in displaying these problems, they then go on to show a few select individuals who are "fixing" education on a small scale, but trying to grow it. I say fixing in quotations because I'm not sure if it's fixing it. They show impressive and hopeful stats from their schools which does certainly give one hope, but I'm not nearly educated enough on the situation to know if it's truly fixing it. These viewpoints are expressed through the story of a number of students who, with their families, are trying to get a better education. They do this by getting in to better schools, some charter, some private, some different public schools. Unfortunately, because there is such a large number of applicants to fill a limited amount of spots, federal law requires a public lottery to be held to decide which students fill those spots. The entire movie leads up to each of these students going to these public lotteries to see see if they get in. At this point in the film, I felt nothing but disgust at this lottery. Here we are, kids' futures in the balance, and we're drawing random names and numbers deciding that? Really? This isn't a joke? No, it is a joke. A sick joke with young kids as the punch line. The unfortunate part of this film is that the apparent fixes by those teachers and administrators who care, the two kids out of all that they follow getting in to their school, and the feel good song at the end provide not nearly enough hope or know-how on what to do or how to do it. Sure there's a website to go to, you get to watch another feel good video updating you on a couple of the students (yeah, the two won their respective lottery), and you can look over their "Take Action Checklist." But forgive me for being skeptical that writing my school board, governor, and other elected officials will make a difference. Forgive me for being skeptical that charter schools is the answer. Forgive me for being so pessimistic in thinking that a few people doing these things will help.** But with that said, you should definitely watch this movie. Watch this movie! Every single person who reads this post should watch this movie. Every person who reads this post should visit the website http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/ and take a look. I'm not sure this movie is right in what they propose to fix, but they are certainly right in that fixing is a necessity. It may be difficult to see if you're one who, like me, grew up with an adequate educational experience, and maybe I'm falling victim to the films propaganda,*** but this movie is certainly a must see for you to decide for yourself.
*Yes, I did say almost. I'm not that ambitious or proactive.
**That's also why I don't vote.
***That's the point of documentaries, right? To present their personal viewpoints in a way as if it's factual.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/
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