I was in a documentary kind of mood last night, so snagged a romcom for the Missus (the very palatable and amusing 'You Again') and this documentary for our second feature. I had seen a preview for this a few months back and was curious about what it would have to say about the state of our educational system. As it turned out, it had a lot to say.
'Waiting For Superman' takes a hard look at the problems with the current educational system while simultaneous following five students who are trying to get into charter schools. The cruelest part of our education system seems to be that the better the school you can get into too, the more chances of success you have at life. All of these kids that 'Superman' follows have big dreams and their parents are fighting hard for better educational choices for their children, yet are trapped in a system that, as the movie demonstrates, too often rewards failure.
Education is going to have to change. That much has been made clear to me this past few months- it's a huge sector of the economy and incredibly important to get right if we want to lay a foundation for prosperity for the future generations and yet we've spent a truly obscene amount of money on education since the 1970s and seen virtually no results to show for all the money. In other words, the current system is one, horrible investment to continue pouring money into. No Child Left Behind and all the reform efforts that the politicians have pimped over the years haven't seemed to work. So what do we do?
The movie isn't exactly clear on that point. And it's a bit of a love letter to charter schools and how 'amazing' they are and blah blah blah- which is something some people have an issue with, but one thing is for sure: a lot of the charter schools that it focuses on are a helluva lot better than the neighborhood public schools a lot of these families are stuck with- so naturally, these parents are desperate for a way out for their kids to secure them the best educational future possible, because the better school you go to, it seems, the better chance you have at getting ahead in life.
Between following the aspirations and hopes of five students trying to get into various charter schools, 'WFS' takes a hard look at reform efforts in D.C. schools lead by now Former Chancellor Michelle Rhee- who took on the system and actually managed to achieve something before being tossed out on her ass along with Mayor Adrian Fenty in the last elections. What proved to be the ultimate sticking point: teacher's unions. Running into blockade after blockade trying to improve the quality of teachers in D.C. schools, Rhee eventually proposed two options: teachers could keep the current contract or they could potentially earn twice as much under a merit based performance pay system while ending teacher tenure. The union wouldn't even allow a vote on it.
But the cruelest thing of all, to me, was watching as these kids see their future either become a lot brighter or potentially a lot trickier as these charter schools hold their lotteries. There was something fundamentally unjust about it, yet with not enough spaces and far too many applicants, charter schools usually have no choice. They have to hold a lottery. The question then becomes: why aren't our schools better and what can we do about it?
That isn't really answered by the movie. And certainly, although charter schools can be really amazing in some cases, compared to their public counterparts, data shows that most do about the same as public schools and others can do worse- while only some do better. So it's kind of hard to fall in love with the movie's obvious flirtatious romance with the charter school movement. Yet the movie convinces the viewer of an undeniable fact: something has to be done. It was insane, looking at the worst excesses of the teacher's unions- things like New York's infamous rubber room, where suspended teachers sit around, WITH PAY and BENEFITS and do nothing, pending a hearing on their case which could take months. BAD teachers are impossible to fire, so some school districts just shuffle them around, hoping that a change of scenery will somehow make them into a better teacher. And so the failures of the system and the resistance to change only reinforce what we've been doing for decades now. And what we've been doing isn't working anymore.
So can we blame teacher's unions for this? It's hard to say. Like with a lot of things, their original justification was a good one. Female teachers were getting paid a lot less back in the day, so yeah, teachers should have organized, gone on strikes, done whatever to ensure that they weren't getting diddled around for their hard work. But now? I understand that jobs are important, but quality in this case matters more than quantity. The average teacher's union protects quantity over quality and at the very minimum and end to teacher tenure and a commitment to protect and promote quality over quantity it was we need. But I'm afraid we might we well past minimum solutions.
On balance: 'Waiting for Superman' didn't change my life, as the preview purported that it would do- but it did hit one nail on the head: we gotta change things up, because right now the system is failing too many kids. However, I'm less convinced by their love affair with charter schools. I think those have their drawbacks too- personally, innovation should take more than one form. Everything idea, everything should be tried. Throw the whole pan o'pasta at the wall and see what sticks- because we need as many good ideas as possible.
Overall: A clarion call for change in our schools. But take it's prescription with a grain of salt...
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