Waiting For Superman Film Analysis

The film, Waiting for Superman directed by Davis Guggenheim, investigates the public school system in the United States. Guggenheim uncovers the many ways in which education in America has declined. Rather than relying largely on statistics and expert opinions. Waiting for “Superman” tells the story of five children who enter a lottery to win a coveted place in a charter school. Four of them seek to escape the public schools; one was asked to leave a Catholic school because her mother couldn’t afford the tuition. Four of the children are black or Hispanic and live in gritty neighborhoods, while the one white child lives in a leafy suburb. By following them, Guggenheim is able to portray each students own individual struggles and triumphs within problem of the plagued academic settings where there are no easy solutions to the myriad issues that affect them. Guggenheim,

demonstrates throughout his documentary on the importance of good teachers and schools, and how they have a tremendous impact on students and their education.  He tells a progressing story about the injustices in our education system. We come to know each of these children and their families; we learn about their dreams for the future; we see that they are lovable; and we identify with them. By the end of the film, we are rooting for them as the day of the lottery approaches.
Community involvement in education reform is crucial to its success.  When families, schools, and community institutions (e.g., local businesses, community colleges, and health agencies) collectively agree upon their goals and decide how to reach them, everyone benefits. Schools enjoy the informed support of families and community members, families experience many opportunities to contribute to their children's education, and communities look forward to an educated, responsible workforce.  Communities can provide schools with a context and environment that can either complement and reinforce the values, culture, and learning the schools provide for their students or negate everything the schools strive to accomplish. Communities also can furnish schools -- and the students in them -- with crucial financial support systems as well as the social and cultural values necessary for success and survival in contemporary society. Finally, communities have the potential to extend a variety of opportunities to students and to their families -- social, cultural, and vocational. By working together, schools, families, and communities can prepare for a more promising future. In urban communities struggling against violence, unemployment, and deteriorating institutions,, school community collaboration offers hope for those who may have given up on the social institutions in their neighborhoods and cities. Rural communities searching for opportunities to revitalize themselves in a technologically sophisticated society can discover ways to bring themselves into the information age by intertwining school and community improvement initiatives.
The United States leads the world in many things, but education is not one of them.

The United States educational system is unable to meet the needs of our extremely connected society. Parents are not involved enough leading to teachers becoming frustrated. If parents are not practicing or going over what their children learned in school, then their children may never improve. Teachers can only do so much during the hours they have the students in school. If parents do not help their students then the students may not reach their highest potential. With schools being overcrowded, classroom sizes are becoming larger and that makes it tougher to learn and for teacher to be effective in their teaching. The smaller the class size, the better experience each student will have. As the U.S.economy continues to improve, public school funding is still feeling the constraints from the recession in 2008. Funding public schools never made it back onto the list and so this is causing less funding on a per student basis. If we do not fund our public school will we ever be able to reach our maximum

achievement?
Charter schools are unique public schools that are allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Not every school is a charter school meaning the majority of the population goes to public school. Ravitch’s article talks about how there was once a time when most people assumed that students’ performance in school was largely determined by their own efforts and by the circumstances and support of their family, not by their teachers. American public education is a failed enterprise. The problem is not money. Public schools already spend too much. Test scores are low because there are so many bad teachers, whose jobs are protected by powerful unions. only hope for the future of our society, especially for poor black and Hispanic children, is escape from public schools, especially to charter schools, which are mostly funded by the government but controlled by private organizations, many of them operating to make a profit.