Posted on 09/23/2010 8:18:47 PM PDT by sinanju
...The title comes from a story told by one of its adult stars, Geoffrey Canada, a widely celebrated education reformer and the firebrand founder of the Harlem Children's Zone. When he was little, he says, he believed in Superman, and was later dismayed to discover that "there was no one coming with the power to save us." Mr. Canada contends that the power to save our schools already exists. Like other activists who appear on camera, he finds the main instrument of salvation in publicly funded charter schools. As if that weren't controversial enough, "Waiting for 'Superman'" fingers teachers' unions as the main obstacle to reform, and paints Randi Weingarten, the former head of the United Federation of Teachers, as a pedagogic Darth Vader.
The filmmaker, Mr. Guggenheim, is no stranger to controversy: he won an Oscar for his previous film, "An Inconvenient Truth," an expansion, with elegant visual aids, of Al Gore's lecture on global warming. This is a time when urgent issues are often explored in polemic documentaries, as well as a fateful moment when the future of public education is being debated with unprecedented intensity. "Waiting for 'Superman'" makes an invaluable addition to the debate.
The film keeps its advocacy in plain view: Mr. Guggenheim doesn't pretend to be a Superman surrogate with simple solutions to save the day. Audiences will argue the merits of his approach, which creates a stunningly scornful metaphor—educational opportunity in America conducted like a game show—out of the lotteries around the country that are currently used to give children a shot at entering desirable charter schools. (In purely dramatic terms, the film's structure is shrewd, and its climax devastating.)...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Surprisingly, Oprah had a great show on this movie on Monday and she was in full agreement with the premise of the movie. All through the show, I kept thinking how ironic it was that she was taking the exact opposite point of view of the man she supported so strongly for president. Surely she realizes what a big influence the NEA and other unions had on his election and continue to have on his presidency.
Actually, Obama and Arne Duncan support Charter Schools. The teachers unions backed Hilary; Obama owes them nothing. I am no fan of Obama but his education policy is not horrible.
I saw that show.
It was tragic in a sense, I felt so bad for that young girl who couldn’t go to graduation (which she had earned) because of a couple bucks. You would hope that the school itself would have more integrity than that.
But the thing that wrankled me the most was the union BS. Getting tenure - a guaranteed lifetime job - after just TWO YEARS?? How do I get in on a deal like that? And it was obvious - TOTALLY OBVIOUS - that the unions were not concerned at all about the quality of education but had one purpose, lining their own pockets.
I’m glad I went to school in the 60’s and 70’s.
I agree with you on this. If I had a gun to my head, forced to say something nice about an Obama policy, it would be on this topic. I wish he’d branch out and endorse vouchers, but that would be a bridge too far, I’m thinking.
When that district in Rhode Island FIRED all of its teachers, this administration stood by that superintendent, much to my surprise.
btw, thanks for posting the article. Good find.
What was the joke that was circulating after the death of Ted Kennedy, the one where the priest doing the funeral is offered a gift to the Church of one million dollars if he would simply say something nice about the deceased?
It was tacky as I recall, but it funny.
Today’s NY post has an article on this movie. 2 showings were sold out yesterday. Lots of PO parents after watching this. Course there were the usual union teachers outside protesting where one teacher was saying it’s a corporate movie backed by Bill Gates.
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