"Waiting for Superman" Movie Review: Movie Reviews, Trailers .

"Waiting for Superman" Movie Review 102 minutes By our guest blogger, Aidan Thomas As an educator and documentary fanatic, I had been looking ahead to "Wait for Superman," and it didn`t disappoint. The film, directed by David Guggenheim, is engaging and digestible. It gives a pretty simplistic, but mostly accurate, overview of the flow province of education.

Through thoughtful voiceovers, entertaining graphics, candid interviews and the touching stories of six students, Guggenheim hones in on the several factors that have caused the current education crisis. Whereas Guggenheim`s previous film, "An Inconvenient Truth," pandered, "Waiting for Superman" engages. The movie begins with Guggenheim reflecting on public education. He laments the fact that he does not feel comfortable sending his kids to the public school they get by every day on their way to individual school. So, what`s amiss with the public education organization? For starters, they are not serving our students. Their scores are abysmal and their drop-out rates are catastrophic. In the most striking interviews of the film, Guggenheim seems to indicate that Randi Weingarten, teachers and bureaucracy have created a system where systemic change is impossible. In contrast, reformers like Harlem Children`s Zone founder Geoffrey Canada and Washington D.C. superintendent Michelle Rhee are presented as potential saviors of our educational system. Guggenheim suggests that there should be greater accountability and more options for our nation's children. Although no one would differ with those sentiments, charter schools and accountability are not inevitably the silver bullets that Guggenheim seems to suggest. The film's best moments come during the interviews with six inner-city youth who are applying to charter schools around the country. The kids are wise beyond their age and are incredibly inspiring. At one point, Anthony, a 12-year-old from D.C. says something akin to, "I only need something better for my kids." This channel in and of itself is an indictment of our time. We dwell in a universe where kids who endeavour to better their lot and to get more for their families are not minded the opportunity to do so. Whether the answer to the current crisis is more accountability, more charter schools, or something else, more people want to be mired in shaping the next of America`s youth and Guggenheim`s film should inspire people to tone up and do so.Grade: B

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