Waiting For Superman Analysis

Waiting for “Superman”, a documentary by Davis Guggenheim is a reminder to all of just how important the American education system is and most importantly how flawed it is. By taking a look into the lives of different children and their families Guggenheim shows how then current system inhibits their academic growth and the day to day obstacles they face in pursuit of a promising education. The film gives great emphasis on teachers Unions and politics being the main reasons for the issues faced today. While shedding light on how the system is failing our children, Guggenheim gives an idea of how to make it better. Charter Schools.

Since Charter Schools have been authorized to operate in the U.S. in 1998, their popularity has grown rapidly. Unlike public schools charter schools are not run by the NYC Department of Education. Charter schools operate independently and commit to meeting

specific academic goals such as raising student success and making their own decisions about how to achieve them. Independent from the regular public school system, charter schools have the ability to choose various ways in which they wish to function. They are allowed to choose their own staff, set educational goal which they see best, establish their own standards, and overall function in a manner that is best for their students and surrounding community. Most of all they have the flexibility to try new approaches and decide what works best overall.
The underlying ideological message in the documentary makes it clear that many American public schools are failing and the reasons are Union’s & politics, inadequate administration, and teachers who simply don’t care. Guggenheim uses five poverty stricken families and takes you through the struggles, trials and tribulations of conflicting education regulations, and how they attempt to avoid the hardships of public schools in order to receive a proper education with promises for a full filling and career oriented life.
Guggenheim believes that for public schools to be successful, they must first and foremost do away with powerful teachers’ unions who’s main goal is to do what’s best or themselves even if means sacrificing a child’s education. As evidence of this, he highlights the great success of charter schools in poverty stricken neighborhoods, which are independent of unions. The flaw with this argument is that charter schools are self-selecting and most likely chose children who were highly motivated and eager to learn as opposed to public schools who have no choice but to work with what they get. Being selective gives charter schools a better chance of achieving excellent standardized test grades therefore making them appear to be doing better than a regular public school.
Teachers Unions have been around for over 50 years.

Guggenheim believes that unions are one of the reason why public schools are failing. He believes that with a lot of connection to the political world many are doing what’s best for them and their pockets as opposed to what’s best for children and their education. Unions also allow teachers to gain tenure which then makes it difficult or almost impossible to fire a teacher even if she seems to be lacking the ability to successfully teach children. Under the unions rules a teacher is a teacher for life.

Standardized has become a major issue in the United States. The No Child Left behind Act made it so that regardless of reading, math, and English proficiency all children would be pushed to the next grade. The documentary showed that children across the fifty states only about 30 percent of the children were actually on grade level. Guggenheim blames teachers, but the blame truly falls on policy makers. Even though a teachers main goal is to prepare children for standardized tests it is impossible if the proper resources aren’t

given.
Guggenheim talks about the impact that money has on education as a whole. He believes that the lack of funding to the public school system has little to do with why many schools are failing. A lack of funds means less educators, less books, and in essence a harder obstacle when trying to teach a child. Charter schools receive the same funding as public schools and then some. Charter schools are greatly funded by private donors many which are millionaires. This give a great advantage over public schools. Access to better books, computers, and other educational references.
While Guggenheim’s arguments have some truth this is an overall matter for educational experts to deal with. Waiting for “Superman” makes it painfully clear that many public schools aren’t working and it’s disturbing to see the struggles and disappointments that many families experience all around the United States. This documentary is an eye-opener into just how bad the problem is, while at the same time trying to give some hope that the problem can be fixed with great emphasis on the charter school system.