Name: Jessica Dianne
Grade: Junior
MIPA Class: Entertainment Coverage
Instructor: Jamie Flanagan
Waiting and waiting for Superman to show up, and he never does. That’s everyday reality for public school students who actually come to school to learn, and our teachers are failing them. Waiting for Superman directed by David Guggenheim, sheds light on our American school system and it’s tremendous shortcomings.
With the United States reading scores being the lowest out of a group of nations, our confidence is rated the highest. This says to me that, students of the United States believe in themselves, but they just don’t know the material.
If an instructor has tenure, no matter how bad of a teacher they are they can’t be terminated. And because of this legal binding contract, the American school system will continue to fail their students.
Waiting for Superman also profiles young public school students transferring to better schools, having to go through a lottery drawing to be enrolled. One student is from Washington D.C., where test scores are the worst in the nation, has a heartwarming story.
His father died from drugs, he never sees him mother, and is being raised by his grandmother. With dreams of going to college, he entered in the lottery to attend a boarding school for a better opportunity. After not being chosen on immediate admission, he was put on a waiting list eventually being admitted. In a way this is momentous, because it signifies that there is hope.
Out of the five students profiles not all of them got accepted, which is reality but disappointing. Every student deserves a good education. If every educator, chancellor, and reformer would be as passionate as Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the Harlem’s Children Zone and Michele Rhee, chancellor of Washington D.C. school system our school system would not be as bad as it is.
Waiting for Superman is informational, political, and emotional all at once, which can be hard to do with documentaries, but David Guggenheim did a great job at it. Waiting for Superman will give you a lot to think about, and is worth a trip to your local theatre.
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