Waiting For Superman Essay The film Waiting for Superman asks an important question as it examines the failing educational system of the United States. Should we focus on saving our schools or the children who attend them. I say we can only save our society by designing schools whose prime objective is to benefit children despite the many agendas that are counterproductive to that end. Waiting for Superman lists those impacted by the public school system and attempts to break down the system responsible, namely poor structures, government officials and as ultimately the all mighty dollar, both spent and made. Who are the stakeholders? Children, whose futures are at risk; parents and caretakers because today’s family makeup is varied, …show more content…
Currently, southern states are performing at 14-18%, eastern states at 40% and western states at 24% in math. National average proficiency in reading ranges 20-35%. However, sometime between the 5th and 7th grades student grade level begin dipping from B’s to D’s. The film hypothesizes it’s because students become aware of their limited prospects and depression begins to set in effecting grades. Whether fueled by depression, poor neighborhoods or bad teachers; schools are failing students, By the 10th grade millions of children drop out of school and have no vested interest in living or becoming productive citizens.
Reformers like D. C. Chancellor, Michelle Rhee, and educator and charter school founder, Geoffrey Canada refuse to accept the status quo. Rhee drew fire in her efforts to make changes in the D. C. school system. Under her administration resources were diverted from administrative budgets and redirected into the schools. Rhee watched test scores rise as a result. She was able to make sure each school was equipped with art, music and P.E. teachers, along with a nurse and librarian. What the Chancellor wasn’t able to do was extend school days, measure the effectiveness of her teachers or change the terms of tenure.
Tenure was meant to protect college professors from unfair firings and was only gained after many years of teaching and going through a long and difficult process. Even then many college educators don’t ever get tenured. Public schools
In Lynda Barry's essay “The Sanctuary of School” the author addresses the ongoing issue of funding for public schools in America. She is trying to persuade her American audience, such as the school board, and parents, that we need to keep the public schools. Barry is the perfect person to argue the importance of public schools and art and the children who attend them because she was one of those children. She is now a famous cartoonist and author, and she thanks her public school experience for her success. Her essay was intended for the people who believe they aren't important, people who work for school boards, maybe some parents, and the United States Department of Education. In “The Sanctuary of School,” Lynda Barry uses a sense of
Over the last few years public school systems have been slowly decreasing in their effectiveness, causing there to be many students, especially those whose families are struggling financially, to be left behind; while others, who have the ability to enter charter schools, are receiving a better education and are succeeding. The documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by David Guggenheim, is focused on this disheartening truth about the American Education System. Through the use of rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos, and music, it attracts the audience to the plot and leaves them with an unsettling feeling about schooling that will hopefully cause them to want to take
“One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman didn’t exist... I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us.” Just as many children look up to fictional characters such as Superman, parents rich or poor, look up to our school system to educate their children. However, too many of these parents are beginning to realize that proper education, like Superman, is nonexistent. In Waiting for “Superman,” Davis Guggenheim addresses the teachers union about the failing public school system in America. Through the use of ethos, anecdotes, statistics and visual and audio elements, Guggenheim attacks a problem too precious to let slip through our fingers.
Mr. Geoffrey Canada and other individual’s that are playing a key role in the reformation of America’s educational system are also used in the documentary. He highlight’s there programs that appear to be now setting the idea that the learning gap can’t be closed on fire. He once again pulls on viewers heartstrings by showing the children that attend these public charter schools succeeding and having fun in school. He fails to show the struggles that they must go through every day,
Zoe Blackburn Craig AP Lang 2 March, 2018 Waiting for Superman Film Review Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim is a documentary released in 2010 that promotes the educational welfare of America’s children in public school systems that are severely broken in many ways. Just under two hours, Guggenheim relates many factual information and shines light on education. The film starts by introducing the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act which progresses into describing the many faults of the educational system. Throughout the documentary, the film shows personal stories such as Daisy, Francisco, Geoffrey Canada, and Michelle Rhee.
During the last couple of years, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have gone through many difficulties; ranging from teacher strikes to low funding, which has tremendously taken a toll on the students attending these schools. The Illinois Policy Institute, which writes to inform the public of issues affecting Illinois states, “Seventy-five percent of students at the lowest-performing elementary schools failed to meet standards on state exams. More than 20 percent of these students scored in the lowest category in reading, meaning they have a difficult time determining the main idea of a persuasive essay or the plot of a short story…Students at Chicago’s lowest-performing high schools drop out at nearly 12 times the rate of average Illinois
In chapter 5, of The Death and Life of the Great American School System, she focuses on how the public school system is run like a business and Bloomberg’s reform program called “Children First”. She discusses how programs that are implemented in the public school system are
This demonstrates that if Sam’s school had got more funding then Sam may have received a proper education, and would have learned the intellectual skills that could help him to obtain a high paying job. Unlike many other people in richer parts of America who are able to achieve a lot in life due to their education, Sam’s lack of wealth ruins his future. Another example is one that hits closer to home- in terms of educational funding, the Illinois system is corrupt, and one of the districts that suffers most is that of Chicago Public Schools. In an interview with Ryan Young from CNN and an anonymous Chicago Public School teacher over the recent strike over budget cuts and the overall lack in school funding, the teacher states, “We care about the students. We want funding for our schools so our children can have supplies… gym, art, and PE., just like the kids in the suburbs do.” This is a direct representation of what is occurring in the Chicago Public School system today as a consequence of budget cuts and unequal funding. In general, the lack of school funding gives poorer children disadvantages when it comes to supplies that can help them to thrive. Also, budget cuts weaken the capacity of schools’ to develop the intelligence and creativity of the next generation of workers. In fact,, funding cuts lessen the ability of the schools to help prepare children better for their future, such as improving teacher
In 2010, Davis Guggenheim released one of the years most talked about documentaries, Waiting for Superman. His film was an eye opening, to many, look at the failings of the U.S. school system. The film follows five students across the U.S., who range in grade level from kindergarten to eighth grade, as they try and escape the public school system through a lottery for a chance admission to a charter school. Guggenheim lays the blame for the failing public education system at the feet of the various teachers unions, and makes a plea for the public in general to get involved in reforming the system. By analyzing Waiting for Superman through a sociological perspective, issues of inequality will be explained using the theoretical approach
Waiting for "Superman" is based on different ethnicity, living environments, and the resources available to them for their education. Many of them are living in poverty, their parents might not have enough money to give them a great education. In the movie, we have five main characters. Their names are Daisy Esparza, from Los Angeles, Francisco Regalado, from the Bronx. We have Anthony, he is also from the Bronx, and lastly, Emily, who is from a suburb in California called Redwood City. They are trying their best to keep them on track in school and help them maybe one day get into college. This starts by the simple face, of taking consent care of them and putting attention on their children. It also shows how many teachers don't care about their student's such as the teacher that Francisco had. Her mother tried to get in contact to see Francisco's progress in reading. The teacher wouldn't answer any calls or any offices call from her. It shows the importance of tenure, which is a contract for teachers that had been there for ten years. They can't get fired over political views, and
In this essay, I would like to expound upon important points in the documentary Waiting on Superman while also describing the forthcoming challenges of the charter school expansion that the movie portrayed as a possible solution for racial inequality in education. Waiting for Superman produced by David Guggenheim gets his name because of the predicament schooling in the US has put kids in. US public schools are so hard to repair that it feels as though it would take someone with superpowers just to change the conditions for downtrodden low-income students of color. These conditions include but are not limited to, an outdated education model of preparing school kids to participate in the workforce, huge economic disparities between public schools
Let’s do away with the school system. In “Against school, John Taylor Gatto says, “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said that they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around” (Gatto 608). Gatto uses his article “Against School” to talk about how the school system is not necessary. He uses certain rhetorical strategies and personal experiences to do so. In “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto uses his personal experience in his thirty years of working in the school system and some rhetorical strategies to convince people who have children in the public-school system that kids do not need to be put in the system to have an education.
In education, tenure is often thought of as a significant issue. There are several pros and cons with reference to tenure. The primary advantage is that tenure prevents educators from being caught for inappropriate reasons. Though anti-tenure supporters can state that this can be now not applicable, the actual fact is that before tenure lecturers were usually in trouble for private, political, or different non-teaching connected reasons. Female educators were relinquishing for inappropriate reasons, or being seen at the incorrect institutions too late in the dark. Different teachers/professors can run into trouble for teaching disputed subjects like evolution or for arguing with the diversity board or administration. The second advantage is that irremovable educators can be very troublesome to dismiss. This can be in all probability the foremost ordinarily detected criticism concerning tenure. Tenure doesn't grant professors immunity from being fired from their positions, however it will create some issues within the matter.
Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare
Historically, American students fall behind the rest of the developed world in the subjects of reading, math, and science within schools (Ripley, 2013). In assessing our inability to do as well as the top countries on the international PISA exam, people have tried to place the blame on a specific area and try to fix that one area in hopes of radically altering the results. Some want to argue that it is bad schools which form bad neighborhoods due to the school’s inability to produce strong students (Chilcott, 2010). Others see the fault in the neighborhoods and families within the neighborhoods, pointing out that it is the situations that these families find themselves in that makes it impossible to school their children (Tough, 2012). While the true problem does not completely conform to one idea listed above, acknowledging a student’s experiences ought to be addressed in schools to ensure that students not only succeed in the present, but also in the future.