Review of Waiting for "Superman" (2010) by Thomas W — 21 Feb 2011

Unlike most documentaries that present their viewers with bullet points, statistics and clear objectives; Waiting for Superman is a reality-television-esque doc that follows a number of students from impoverished neighborhoods across the country all trying to win "lottery" drawings for better chances at education and the life that can come from that.

Introducing the audience to the school buildings that are ruinous and decaying, it is easy to see why most children in certain neighborhoods rarely make it past middle school. Hearing that a meager 20-or-so students will graduate out of a class of several hundred is downright depressing.

The documentary highlights several reasons why America's educational system is declining at breakneck speed (the doc focuses on tough-tough-tough inner city neighborhoods of America's largest cities so these figures don't represent a true cross-section of our population); but even seeing what we do is distressing.

The filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), follows the lives of several motivated children and each of their stories can bring a viewer to tears -- I was rooting for the animal-doctor wannabe, Daisy, to get an "in" at her neighborhood's ONLY decent school; but with a paltry 10 openings for the upcoming year her chances are slim.

Knowing that these are REAL kids with REAL dreams and that these are REAL parents wanting the life-for-their-kids that they haven't been able to provide for them is heartbreaking. I was moved to tears in this thoughtful essay on our deplorable education system.

Teacher's unions and tenure take some shots; but the film asks for change all around ... and seeing Daisy concentrate and hope for her lottery number to come up makes me realize hopes and dreams shouldn't rest on a game of chance for so many underpriviliged kids.

I am blessed beyond belief and I wish these children could have even a fraction of what I have been given. We see some special souls on display in Waiting for Superman. How long must we wait before we realize we have to make changes on our own? Some people do need our help .

.. and I guess we can all actually be a Superman-of-sorts in some of these situations on our own. See it!