Seeing Superman

I saw Superman last night and I don’t mind saying that Superman made me cry.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a Columbus screening of the documentary Waiting for Superman. After hearing and reading about this documentary for months, I have to say that the film definitely delivers the promised emotional punch.

Waiting for Superman turns a glaring and often uncomfortable spotlight on our nation’s struggling schools while following several students’ attempts to leave their failing schools for higher performing charter schools. Weaving facts and figures with conversations with the children and their families and input from noted education reformers, the film brings us into the lives of people desperate to obtain a quality education for their children. The film’s final scene places the viewer in the middle of the selection process for the excruciatingly limited number of spaces in charter schools around the country. Some children gain a coveted spot, most do not.

My advice: Bring plenty of tissues. This film is a true tearjerker. What could be more heart-wrenching than seeing the look on the face of an eight year old child who knows that the education system has first failed them and now denied them a way out? Listen to Anthony talk about how being selected to attend a coveted boarding school would be “bittersweet” because as much as he wants to attend this school, he would miss his grandmother and his friends?

The film will make you angry. Scenes of children and families desperate to do anything to enroll in a quality school, the New York City “rubber room” full of teachers removed from classrooms (for various reasons) and paid full salaries for years while doing nothing, and heroic attempts to improve and reform failing schools met with vigorous efforts to maintain the less than exemplary status quo paid for by tax dollars.

The problems of our public education system seem so difficult, so challenging that even Superman may not be able to save these children.

There were aspects of this film that I did not care for.

I could have done without graphics that looked like something out of a 1960′s filmstrip. If the filmmaker was trying to make the film look old and cheap, he succeeded. I’m sure he was going for the old-fashioned school house feel, but he missed the mark.

The film is heavy on generalizations and sweeping statements that leave this viewer wanting to ask for statistics to support some of the conclusions. (I admit to being a data wonk.)

And then there was the teacher bashing. This film is as strong an example of passive-aggressive, back-handed compliments as I’ve ever seen. We hear one moment how important teachers are and the next moment we are left believing that teachers are black-souled monsters that prey on children. While I agreed wholeheartedly with many of the criticisms leveled at teachers and teacher unions in this film, I don’t think the filmmaker was as even-handed as he could or should have been. The film pays too little attention to the many teachers who are smart, hard-working and dedicated to doing the best for their students. The film too often paints every teacher and school with the same broad brush in a simplistic treatment of a complex problem.

Last night I was sad and angry, but today I feel different. Over night the sadness and anger turned into something else, something much more useful. Last night’s feelings have given way to determination. I am determined to do whatever I can to improve educational opportunities in Ohio.

Go and see Superman. Look past the cheesy graphics and sometimes sweeping generalizations and look into the faces of the children. Cry a little. Feel sad. Wave an angry fist in the air. Then stop waiting for Superman, because he’s not coming to save our schools. It’s up to us.

Similar Posts:

Share
October 11, 2010 • Tags: Superman • Posted in: School Notations

Leave a Reply