“Waiting on Superman” is a documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim. He made the film to show how our school systems are failing students. The movie is really an eye opener. It shows countless statistics of how poorly schools are performing. “Failing factories” are high schools where over 40% of the students do not graduate; across the United States there are thousands. The documentary shows that success of the student starts with the teacher. High quality teachers equal good performance of students. So eliminating low quality teachers seems like the solution, but to fire a teacher, there are innumerable hoops to jump through. The adults, despite saying they are concerned for the children, are concerned for the adults. Students in some areas of the nation only have a chance at quality education through two ways 1) pay tuition to a private school or 2) win a school lottery. For low-income families, the first is near impossible, and the second is simply the luck of the draw.
Malcolm Gladwell talks about success in his book called Outliers. His idea of success is basically someone who is born under lucky stars and takes the opportunity given unto them. However, children born into low-income families are already at a disadvantage, and many of them try to take the opportunities available. Nevertheless, they fail, not because they did not try hard enough, but because they did not win the school lottery. In the film, Guggenheim interviewed five children trying to get into lottery schools. Some of them were KIPP schools, like the school Marita attended in the chapter ‘Marita’s Bargain’. Of the five children, only two made it (Gladwell, 2008).
Carol Dweck’s book Mindset is about how people need to change their mindset in order to be successful in life (2006). The children interviewed in the film had the right mindset, but many of the adults who control the schools had fixed mindsets. They were more concerned about the teachers. They could not see that the schools needed improvement, and that the suggested improvements were on the behalf of the students, on the country’s future.
This movie ties in with the gender-divided classroom project. The idea of gender-divided classrooms is one of the many suggestions to improve education. Many arguments are boys and girls learn, behave, and think differently, so why not put them into separate classrooms? But then the problem arises where people want to argue the idea back and forth. Like the few people who tried advanced schools like KIPP, people try gender-divided classrooms. Then, studies show up for and against the idea, like the advanced schools.
“America equals the land of opportunity” is such an untrue statement. “America equals the land of opportunity, if you happen to be lucky” fits America better. It was so heartbreaking to see the students not get accepted into the schools. Sadly, I knew many of them would not simply because of probability. The “American Dream” is to be a success, and the children had it. One girl who was not accepted at KIPP LA wanted to be a vet, nurse, or doctor. Without quality education, her chances of succeeding in her dreams will become worse as time marches on. It seems hypocritical to tell kids, “You’re unique, you’re smart, you can do anything you want,” and yet we do little to help them succeed in their dreams.
In America we have much more than most of the world does, but at the same time our “good stuff” is going bad. Every child in America gets educated to some degree, but not a good quality education. Politicians, teachers, and teacher unions have the power to change most of the issues, but it does not happen. I do not understand why the teacher unions are so worried about the security of the teachers’ jobs. I know that is the point of unions, but are not teachers suppose to care for a child’s success in life? Like parents and pediatricians, are not teachers suppose to care about a child?
Sometimes I think liberalism has run amuck to the point that people do not care about their fellow man. Our country is falling apart because politicians only seem to care about getting reelected or receiving a paycheck. Movie stars, singers, and other famous people are constantly showing their selfish side. It is ok to look after yourself and others like yourself, but children cannot look after themselves. They have to be taken care of whether it is food, clothing, or education. I understand that there would be millions of families hurt if teachers lost their jobs; my families’ income comes from a teacher salary. But are not more people being hurt because of bad teachers? Let’s say one bad teacher teaches for ten years, 30 students per year. The teacher affected 300 students. Multiply that by how many bad teachers are in America, and you get a big number for how many students are affected. It does not matter what track the students are on; bad teachers affect all types of students. I am probably on the “high” track since I am in college. I had a bad teacher in fifth grade; I taught myself most of the material. However, I did not read much that year because my teacher did not encourage us to. My SAT scores suffered for it. I went from the 80’s and 90’s range, to the 60’s, out of 100.
I am not sure what the answer to all of this is. Our country is falling apart is all I know. Yes, we have it better than most of the world, but that does not mean we will last. Rome had a great empire at one time, and it prospered. But eventually, it collapsed. America is slowly becoming that way. We are so much in debt, and the politicians making “necessary cuts” seem unconcerned about the education system. Texas wants to cut billions of dollars in what it gives to its schools (Collins, 2011). Children will suffer. Other states will probably follow. The future for education does not look good.
Bibliography
Collins, G. (2011, February 17). Mrs.Bush, abstinence, and Texas. New York Times , p. A27.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.
Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers. New York City: Little, Brown and Company.
