Review of Waiting for "Superman" (2010) by Kyle H — 22 Apr 2012

It is not difficult to see Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman as an agreeable piece. Particularly, from the standpoint of one who has gone through the American education system, it becomes easier and easier to swallow the information being given in the film due to former experiences and realizations.

Many students of U.S. public schools are without future academic aspirations. While this may be fine for some who simply want to - and have the ability to do - other things, it is a tragedy for those would try and expand their knowledge if they had been equipped with the proper tools during their experience in the public school system.

This author, as a substitute teacher and academic advisor, has seen many of the issues discussed in the movie firsthand (in addition to having experienced some of them). There seem to be quite a number of people who don't want to be teachers.

.. who are teachers. The accountability of teachers is rarely monitored, rewarded or punished. On top of the lack of administrative responsibility, the No Child Left Behind Act ties the hands of core subject teachers to particular material which must be used on one particular test that bears no actual weight on students' lives besides whether or not they continue to another grade.

While the intention of the bill may have been to "hold educator's feet to the fire" and ensure that they are correctly teaching their material, the problems that arise out of the Act seem to outweigh the benefits.

The major problem being: "teaching toward a test" does not allow for deductive reasoning, but only inductive memorization. Practical application of knowledge requires creativity and the ability to innovate and invent.

Such skills are not instilled in most students in the United States. Experience tells this author that most pupils see work in preparation for standardized tests as menial and without impact in the real world.

Further, dry memorization of facts is not typically engaging. Active learning may actually encourage both the factual knowledge that is the goal of standardized tests and the deductive skills needed for individuals to function in the outside world.

Unfortunately, teachers' unions ensure the security of not only good teachers, but ones that have been proven to be poor educators as well. When test scores are low, a whole school is punished by receiving fewer federal funds instead of singling out and punishing the specific educators who are not adequately teaching their material (if we were to actually using the federal criteria for our standards, that is).

The whole system is a mess. Although Waiting for Superman seems to be a success from a film-making point of view because of its compelling nature via powerful rhetoric and arrangement of information, it does indeed lack some closure.

A lot of time in the movie is spent on exposing the existing problems while spending very little time on the solvency. It would have been nice to see more information on a plan to overcome the barriers to the solution or helpful hints for what the quintessential person/viewer can do to assist in overcoming the problems presented.

This story, without resolution, seems a bit incomplete. Part of the reason for this negative aspect of the film may be that an effective solution has yet to be implemented in real life. Despite this, more reasoning through facts with heuristic application may have been a constructive tool for ending the film.

It is this author's opinion that any educator, or potential educator, should see Waiting for Superman - whether they agree with all the arguments presented or not - in order to be aware of the "education debate" and be mindful of its impacts.