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‘Waiting for Superman’ Questions America’s Public Education System

Thursday Sep 23, 2010 – By Clutch

A new film questioning America’s public education system will release in theaters tomorrow. “Waiting for Superman” is an enlightening and emotional documentary that reveals one of America’s sweeping disasters; a hidden disaster whose damaging affects many of don’t realize.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the film explores the current state of public education and how it’s affecting America’s children. Filled with startling statistics, and personal accounts the film is sure to raise a few eyebrows, and hopefully evoke some much needed change.

Featuring a multi-cultural cast, Daisy, an L.A. fifth-grader, Anthony from D.C., also a fifth-grader, Emily, an eighth-grader from Silicon Valley, and Harlem’s Bianca, kindergartner, “Waiting for Superman” shows that while race is a major factor in the educational gap, failed hopes triumphs skin color.

Among the film’s shocking revelations is that while America is a leading nation, we rank 25th in math, and 21st in science. Education insiders lend fascinating details on America’s failed education, and the fact while the country’s access to technology has heightened, this generation will be more illiterate than the last.

The film releases in theaters, tomorrow on Friday. Check out the film’s website for showtimes in your area.

via clutchmagonline.com

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Public education is broken and we have known it for decades. Taking a critical look requires that we examine the system itself, its administration, the pedagogy and tenor of instruction; parents, students and community; and not simply lay blame on teachers' unions for public education ills. Parents are the first educators and they simply must prepare their children to be educated long before they enter PK! I am more than aware that by necessity, parents already struggling with providing the basics now must work multiple jobs and longer hours just to make ends meet, while their children often fall through the cracks. Quality affordable after school programs are often out of their reach, just like a quality education. Schools will remain under resourced as long as we fund education via property taxes. It's painfully obvious that communities with property will always outspend communities with poverty, although that does not necessarily produce academic success. I believe that most students want to and will learn. But we must provide them with and the teachers committed to educating them with functioning classrooms; textbooks and technology; and quality instruction. There are many pieces to this conundrum. However, convenient, blaming teachers' unions appears to be another tactic to destroy them and masks the holistic nature of our challenge.
— T. G. Hebert