Waiting for Superman
Goodness, I’ve been so busy with conference matters that I didn’t take the time to talk about the documentary! I had the opportunity to see it a couple of weeks ago in Columbus, OH as part of a pre-screeening with educators, professors, and attorneys. The screening was followed by a discussion group at a nearby restaurant.
The documentary itself was interesting and I learned a number of new facts. However, the attorney in me had a number of pointed questions in response to some of the interviews, and certainly noticed some of the gaps in the position of the movie’s creators.
As with any documentary or presentation, the presenter arrives with her or her own perceptions, just as the viewer arrives with theirs. Personally, I didn’t think the view toward the unions was as negative as I expected it to be, though yes, it was negative. However, among those at my table during the discussion group was a former labor lawyer who very adamantly thought that the unions were treated even more horribly than he expected. So, as with just about anything, your perception becomes your reality.
Being a documentary-length film, the ideas, information, and positions given are done so in their simplest form. The discussion group was wonderful because we could take those snippets and really discuss, debate, and give each other additional insight. I hope if you have the opportunity to see it that you do so with a group of people, or at least a small group of people, and you make time to discuss it afterwards. I took a small notebook and scrawled notes as I watched it, so I wouldn’t forget anything later during dicsussion.
Since I am the director of ELA, during the discussions I tried my best not to take a particular position but instead asked a number of questions on the topics at hand that would challenge the position of the other person, just for the sake of argument and further discussion.
On one had, the documentary tries to make it clear that charter schools are wonderful and can be an answer to our nation’s troubled schools. However, it admits that only 1 in 5 charter schools is really producing results. In a perfect world, it would be nice if we could take the elements of what is working well in those schools and apply them to our nation’s public schools, where 90-95% of our nation’s children are receiving their education. The consensus of the discussion at our table was that although charter schools are the answer for some students, they won’t replace the current system and so everyone must work together to import what is working in those schools to the entire current system.
It is interesting to note that the documentary pointed out that today’s massive educational system seems more focused on the adults than the children. That is a point I hadn’t thought of before. Perhaps skewed by the media, but when I hear reports of changing things in schools, I hear about how it will impact teachers, administrators, and parents; I don’t hear how it will impact the children. Is it natural in our society that adults come first because we’re running everything, or are we truly forgetting the needs of the children? Your thoughts?
Considering that the biggest ‘complaint’ of the documentary, and admittedly that of our group, is that compared to university-level professors, tenure is given too easily and quickly to K-12 teachers. I would be curious as to your response to this. What would you change, if you could, in the current system to make it work a little better for our nation’s children?