Review of Waiting for "Superman" (2010) by Derek G — 18 Feb 2011

Every child has a different need. Every child has a different passion or career in mind, even when they are little. So college and university offers kids a chance to pick what they want to do and shoot for the stars. The problem is that hardly any of them will ever get a chance to go there. Waiting For Superman is the latest documentary from Davis Guggenheim. You know when the director critiques his own documentary within the first few minutes that this is going to be a film of revelation. And it is in some respects. But in others, it's a shocking and powerful attack of the American education system. As you sit there with your mouth agape in awe and disbelief, you need to count your blessings to understand just how lucky you really are.

Every documentary of course has some sort of bias. But Guggenheim takes an interesting approach. He mentions how you can look at the numbers and averages of all his stats, and generalize a solid conclusion. But really all you have to do if focus on one individual, and follow them. Guggenheim follows a handful of elementary school students as they struggle to beat the system. They have dreams, like us, like anyone. The most powerful aspect of Guggenheim's film is how it seems that to get even the most average education, it all comes down to pure chance.

That's right, your kid has to get lucky to be taught properly. Guggenheim does shower us with many facts, and they are hard to believe. Did you know after a teacher has been teaching for a couple of years, they can't get fired? Yup, their jobs are secure because they believe they have a legal right to teach. They get something called a tenure, which ensures their career for life. But what if they are bad teachers? Too bad, they legally cannot be let go. Not without years of court and paperwork. Yes, years, not months.

That is what Guggenheim is arguing here, not from a biased view (or at least hiding that bias really well), but from logic. Sense has left the system and these kids are being punished for things they cannot control. Their futures are in the hands of some higher authority, who determine a system. A child can fail at one school, drive down the street to another public school and go there. These school are "drop out factories" as they are called by leading experts. The worst part is, they have been this same quality for years. Why on earth is this possible?

Waiting for Superman isn't perfect though. It falls into a lull of testimonials, and it sometimes asks for too much sympathy. Soon it starts to hammer a little too hard on its points, and begins to drone on and on. Luckily, this doesn't last too long and eventually the documentary ploughs forward. But there are better ways to prove a point and so many other perspectives that could've been taken. Peer pressure and social skills also contribute to a child's ability to learn, yet those aren't touched upon. Just "rough neighborhoods".

Continuing the hopeless despair, many people have tried to do something about. They've signed contracts, passed laws and hired as many people as they could. And it has done diddly squat. The system for some reason demands to protect everyone except the children. Supposedly, this system is here to help, but Superman is nowhere in sight.

Instead of just facts, Guggenheim uses those facts in relation to people we can actually connect with: the children and their families. How can you put a child's learning to pure luck? Literally, the lottery balls roll around in the cage as the children can only hope. Hope is important, but hope can only last so long. Waiting for Superman asks you to stand up and do something about it. The worst part about a problem is that when you know something can be done, yet there is no way to get to that solution. It's a problem to reach the solution of a problem, which is, well, the problem.