Waiting for Superman

I finally watched the documentary "Waiting for Superman." It came out quite a while ago and was playing at the Broadway for a while. I wanted to go see it, but never made it, so it's been on the top of my Netflix queue awaiting release.

So, what did I think? It's good. There is a lot of truth to it.

1. Our system is bad. It was good during the post WWII era, but hasn't changed since. It's not producing people competent enough to work in the high tech fields we are known for (hence the large numbers of people from India and elsewhere working for U.S. companies).
2. Teachers unions block a lot of needed change. Teachers are extremely influential and can make nearly all the difference for a child sometimes, but because of strong unions, tenure, and contract constraints, it is nearly impossible to get rid of bad teachers. Thus one of the most poignant lines in the movie was that education then becomes, "all about the adults."
3. The facts are there and are inarguable. We have greatly increased the number of per pupil spending in our country, but our math and reading scores have remained stagnant while our overall international rankings in reading and math have plummeted.

The film shows positive schools that are working, but then it also focuses a lot of attention on kids trying to get past a lottery system in order to get into the charter schools of their choice (though it does point out that only 1 in 5 charter schools is even successful). It's really depressing, actually. Maybe that's the point. Anyway, unfortunately, the movie doesn't really offer a lot of suggestions until the final credits. The final credits say that this is what we know works:

• Quality Teachers
• More Classroom Time
• World Class Standards
• High Expectations
• Real Accountability

So, I'm an educator . . . what about me? I buy it. I get it. Our system is stuck and it needs change. But, I also just graded two class periods of tests for my sophomore Algebra students. 4th period - average 66% and 8th period - average 60%. I try. I care. I try to get to know kids and build a rapport with them. I think I hold kids to high expectations. We never have a wasted day in my class. I try to work with kids one-on-one as much as I can, but I also am fortunate to have an adult aide in these two classes who also pulls kids out to work with them. I make parent contacts frequently. I work with the special ed. teachers well. My kids are noisy and very irreverant, but usually good and respectful. This year we are even giving them more time in class, by requiring them to come to math every single day on the block schedule. So why don't they get it? Is it me? Is it them? Is it the system? Is it their parents? Is it their elementary teachers? Is it their environment and community? What is it? It's probably a combination of all of those factors.

The movie focused a lot on the extremes. It focused on the extremely bad schools and then the extremely good schools. What about the middle-of-the-road schools like mine? We're better than some, but not wonderful. I don't think I am damaging any students, but I don't know that we are really catching the ones falling through the cracks either.

"Waiting for Superman" brings up some great topics for discussion and urges a call to action. The title, itself, implies that we cannot wait for a super hero to fix the problem, rather we all need to act. Unfortunately, the film didn't offer me any ideas on how to improve the 60% average for my students. I guess I'll have to still work on that.