Review of Waiting for "Superman" (2010) by Brad B — 16 Dec 2011

This was a very insightful and encouraging documentary on the public school system in the US, which I have long thought to be a lost cause. I assumed that if you didn't have enough money to live in a good school district, your only other options were home schooling or a private school in order to prepare a student for college.

It's true, outsourcing has removed just about every unskilled to simi-skilled job that once were in abundance in this country. However, there are many jobs that go unfilled due to the lack of educated applicants, forcing many companies to import workers. Todays high school student, that goes on to graduate from college, makes up just thirty percent of what the job market requires. It is estimated that today over sixty percent of the workforce must have a minimim of two years or more of college in order to even be considered. This leaves a huge thirty percent vacancy needed to be met. Many public schools still operate as though it was the 1950's and end up fast tracking 60 percent of it's students straight to failure. This is due in part because the overall philosophy has not been updated to reflect the continuous changing times we live in.

Sadly, it would also appear that the teachers union is the biggest reason we haven't been able to match the level of education that every other industrialized nation accomplished decades ago. At the start of Industrialization, unions were one hundred percent necessary in order to properly protect workers. But, as we have all known for some time, the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction, bankrupting many industries, crying out for a much needed correction. Until that happens, we are left with the afore mentioned choices or roll the dice on a 1 in 20 chance at getting into one of the new charter schools. Until education returns to it's rightful place of importance, we will continue to do a great disservice to a majority of Americans that only wish what was once promised to them in this country. A chance to to lift themselves and their children up to a better life through education. To pursue a career instead of a "job". The time for change has long since past, and there are no longer any excuses for the sad state our inner cities and less populated areas exist in. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone with even the slightest of concern or interest in the future of this country.