Waiting for "Superman" Review: A System of Failure

Academy Award-winning documentarian, Davis Guggenheim, is second with a new documentary that explores the flow province of the American education system, Waiting for "Superman." Guggenheim follows five students on their paths of education: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily.These kids live all over the United States, from New York City to Washington, D.C.

to California, and in all kinds of neighborhoods, from the poor inner city to wealthy white suburbia.The common links between these children are that they are all bright students and they all work hard.They all show a big mass of hope and have ambition.And they are all screwed.Because the schools they are leaving to end up in will study that aside from them and rob them of their opportunities.

Waiting for "Dot" is an exhaustive look into the problems that provoke the new American education system.One of the biggest being that is isn`t modern.Our organization of education is still working under the methodology of the academic needs of the 1950s.Well, in the 1950s, not everyone went to college, because not everyone needed to go to college.There was yet a large agrarian population.Well that doesn`t exist anymore.As one interviewee grimly put it, "If you don`t go to college in America, you`re sort of screwed.And Usa is sort of screwed." But our education system doesn`t reflect this need, still favoring a tracking system in most instances, whereby students are located on tracks that determine where they will end up: college, managerial positions, or manual workforce. But the methodology isn`t the only problem.

Teacher`s unions struggled to get rights for teachers.And they succeeded.In fact, they have been too successful.In public institutions, after two days a teacher has tenure.After that, it is literally impossible to attack them.What this way is that unlike every other profession, success isn`t merit based.Teachers can`t be promoted. They can`t get raises, not based on their skill level or success with students anyway.All the teachers have to be kept on a level playing field.Fighting this is just shy of impossible as the unions are incredibly powerful and keep a fierce stranglehold on that power.Because of this, it is inconceivable to know the good teachers and get rid of the bad ones. What Guggenheim`s film shows is that money and budgets aren`t the major problems plaguing the training system.They are problems, and big ones to be sure, but you can pour all the money you desire into a broken machine, it`s still going to be upset if you don`t look for a way to fix it.

This movie is not without hope, for Guggenheim offers solutions.Or rather, he goes to the places where solutions are being offered.He finds Geoffrey Canada in New York City and others across the land that are implementing a new case of school: charter schools.These schools institute a doctrine that school needs to be made as significant a component of a child`s life as possible.This means extending school hours and keeping children accountable for their employment and actions.The results?Students at these schools not only outperform their neighboring schools, they outperform everybody.However, there is a catch. These charter schools receive a limited number of distance and a limited window to apply.Hundreds of children will be vying for a smattering of spots, sometimes as little as ten.The names of the children are interpreted and set into a lottery.A lottery is held to determine who gets admission.

Guggenheim follows Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily as they go to school.He asks them what they need to do with their lives.They all have ambitions.Some of them even know that the odds are stacked against them.Guggenheim also interviews the parents, and they all experience the odds are stacked against their children.He watches as the parents do the better they can for their children, helping them with homework, and finally getting them in the lottery systems for the charter schools.

The genius of Guggenheim`s of cinema is that he doesn`t just ask why the scheme is as low as it is, he shows it.He shows that it isn`t a plot of statistics.Kids that are poor and minorities aren`t dumber than kids that are fat and white.They are failing because they are trapped in a confused system, a scheme that where bankruptcy is the average and success is the exception.But Guggenheim shows solutions.He shows ways to convert the arrangement for the better.He goes and finds the masses that are making a conflict and shows how they are doing it. The solutions are simple.And Guggenheim presents them simply, with a bit of spirit and humor.This is a job that can be set and necessarily to be.If we only turn our heads and looking away, hoping that everything will work itself out, we power as easily be waiting for Superman.