Resume editingOccasionally a movie comes along that makes you really think. In this case, about systems set up in our society, and we ask ourselves "does this work?". We are forced to look at hard truths and evaluate the effectiveness of systems put in place long ago - "Waiting for Superman" is such a movie. In this movie we plainly see how our antiquated educational system, while well-intentioned in it's inception, is not getting students where they are supposed to or need to go.
The film takes us through the lives of many kids in the public elementary school system and points out many staggering statistics all along the way to show the present harsh realities for both teachers and students. We are shown that over the years nothing much has changed in the way of test scores and we are actually one of the poorest-performing nations in terms of academics compared against other nations considered world powers.
The movie does a nice job of picking apart the "No Child Left Behind" campaign enacted by President George W. Bush. While created to keep everyone on grade level, enforcing the concept of testing and testing again has become a detriment to learning new material or any emphasis on athletics or the arts, for example. The act also prevents the best students from doing their best as all children must have the same baseline for testing and must stay together in scores. The teacher's focus seems to be on working with the slow learners, leaving little room for growth with average and high performing students.
As 68% of prison inmates are shown to be high school dropouts, we then come to learn that it costs the state (and its people) $32,000 a year to "house" a prisoner. Over 4 years that's almost $130,000. Rewind the clock and send that same person to private school ($8,300 per year) over 13 years is $108,000, leaving over $20,000 left over. Amazing.
Enter Michelle Rhee, who is literally turning around the Washington D.C. school system with her modern methods for a system riddled with apathy and entitlement. It was encouraging to see how she is bringing dramatic changes that are long overdue. We are also introduced to the Teachers Unions, put in place to protect the teachers well-being. The movie suggests these unions impede the interests of the children, and what is even more interesting is they insist upon no special designations given to any of the members-good nor bad- allowing bad teachers the same privileges (ie. tenure) as great teachers, who can not be formally recognized. Everyone is equal. Isn't that like communism? Again, entities that were formed with the purpose of helping the schools are now hindering its progress.
The worst of the worst teachers, and by that I mean these teachers have purposefully acted in a way that is harmful to themselves and their students, while waiting for disciplinary actions (which typically amount to 3 years), wait in the "rubber room" while receiving full pay and benefits. If that doesn't outrage all of us, I don't know what will.
Charter schools are presented as the protagonist to this story. The major caveat is that in most cases, you have to be selected from a lottery, and the numbers don't look good. Poorly performing children are placed in this system and do unbelievably well, as a rising tide lifts all boats, or, kids live up to the expectation levels of the teacher.
Extremely compelling, those with children, thinking about having children, or in the education field owe it to themselves to watch this movie.
The film takes us through the lives of many kids in the public elementary school system and points out many staggering statistics all along the way to show the present harsh realities for both teachers and students. We are shown that over the years nothing much has changed in the way of test scores and we are actually one of the poorest-performing nations in terms of academics compared against other nations considered world powers.
The movie does a nice job of picking apart the "No Child Left Behind" campaign enacted by President George W. Bush. While created to keep everyone on grade level, enforcing the concept of testing and testing again has become a detriment to learning new material or any emphasis on athletics or the arts, for example. The act also prevents the best students from doing their best as all children must have the same baseline for testing and must stay together in scores. The teacher's focus seems to be on working with the slow learners, leaving little room for growth with average and high performing students.
As 68% of prison inmates are shown to be high school dropouts, we then come to learn that it costs the state (and its people) $32,000 a year to "house" a prisoner. Over 4 years that's almost $130,000. Rewind the clock and send that same person to private school ($8,300 per year) over 13 years is $108,000, leaving over $20,000 left over. Amazing.
Enter Michelle Rhee, who is literally turning around the Washington D.C. school system with her modern methods for a system riddled with apathy and entitlement. It was encouraging to see how she is bringing dramatic changes that are long overdue. We are also introduced to the Teachers Unions, put in place to protect the teachers well-being. The movie suggests these unions impede the interests of the children, and what is even more interesting is they insist upon no special designations given to any of the members-good nor bad- allowing bad teachers the same privileges (ie. tenure) as great teachers, who can not be formally recognized. Everyone is equal. Isn't that like communism? Again, entities that were formed with the purpose of helping the schools are now hindering its progress.
The worst of the worst teachers, and by that I mean these teachers have purposefully acted in a way that is harmful to themselves and their students, while waiting for disciplinary actions (which typically amount to 3 years), wait in the "rubber room" while receiving full pay and benefits. If that doesn't outrage all of us, I don't know what will.
Charter schools are presented as the protagonist to this story. The major caveat is that in most cases, you have to be selected from a lottery, and the numbers don't look good. Poorly performing children are placed in this system and do unbelievably well, as a rising tide lifts all boats, or, kids live up to the expectation levels of the teacher.
Extremely compelling, those with children, thinking about having children, or in the education field owe it to themselves to watch this movie.