Waiting For Superman

In 1938, the first ever superman comic hit the shelves. In 1952, due to the growing Superman fan base, the Man of Steel appeared in his first ever televised adaptation. Since then, Superman has become one of the most widely recognised fictional characters in American history. Generations have grown up in the type of awe, and complete admiration, that only a child could hold for a fictional character. What person wouldn’t be utterly captivated by the idea of a crusading hero, standing up and fighting for Truth, Justice, and The American Way? This is the type of role model that I, and thousands of others, have known and dreamed about through adolescence. With such an idealistic hero dominating popular culture, and so many looking up to him, what

Its his job to rescue all the people in need. It quite unfortunate then, that superman is not real. For the children who live in lower end neighborhoods it's not merely unfortunate, it's a complete tragedy. It is a tragedy because these people have no one to turn to, to rescue them. In Waiting for Superman, educator Geoffrey Canada explains how the current state of the schools system, not only blocks children from opportunities they deserve, but forces children to realize that “there is no one coming with enough power to save us.” By using this stark statement coupled with the Superman analogy, Guggenheim establishes a relatable commonality between Canada and the audience. Once this bond is established between the content and the viewer, it creates a dark emotional pull that draws the audience into the shoes of Canada and his experiences. It’s a hard reality, being forced to sacrifice a bit of childhood because of someone else's flaws. The education system is flawed in a few distinct ways, one of which being the process of tracking. Tracking is an arbitrary process in which school officials decide to place students on a high or low track by rating a number of subjective factors such as: politeness, obedience, and neatness. Students who get placed on a lower track are paired with teachers who perform less than the higher track; these students often feel as though, “they are

Since Superman can no more assist with financial aspects than he can save the children who suffer under the education system’s boot, it once again falls to the schools to solve this problem. In 1971 the government spent about forty three hundred dollars per student, In 2007 the spending per student increased to nine thousand dollars. In the same time frame, “reading and math scores flatlined” and remained constant throughout the time period. If schools double the money they put into each student, but get the exact same result, it means that there is an error happening somewhere along the lines of the education system. This statistic is meant to increase the effect of Guggenheim's logos appeal, and to hit the audience were it hurts: the wallet. People would not be happy to learn that their tax dollars are funding stale programs that have not improved despite the drastic increase in expenditure. Continuing with the motif of money, the documentary takes a look at the current prison system. In pennsylvania, “68% of inmates are high school dropouts.” On average about $132,000 is spent on a prisoner(over four years), for that same amount the inmate could have gone to a private school for 13 years and still had $24,100 left over. This little bit of logic is