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Waiting for Superman?
Anyone seen it, or planning to see it?
I know it has the Oprah seal of approval, but this movie has my public school teacher friends pretty steamed. I've heard it's got kind of an anti-union message, really pushes charter schools (where does that leave special needs or ELL students when charter schools are not obligated to include services for them?), and doesn't have much positive to say about public schools in general.
That's just what I've heard. I haven't seen it yet but I probably will. How about you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by hermit crab on -
As usual, I'm far too wimpy to see something where I know that the protagonists (esp child protagonists) are going to have a hard time of it. My interest was definitely piqued by Gail Collins' editorial about it, though. She agrees with your friends, for the record.
I'm lately intrigued by something that seems to be a new media mini-trend -- have references to actual pedagogical strategies popular in other countries for improving reading and writing ever been so prominent? I'm thinking about the references to Singapore Math and reading education in Finland. I'm just waiting to find out where they successfully teach writing, because I am totally scheduling a work vacation there.
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on -
I've never even heard of this. And generally anything that gets Oprah's seal of approval is usually something I'm not interested in. (okay, I just went and watched the trailer.)
I don't know how you can address improving education though, without a good discussion about working with public schools. The trailer didn't seem to give much information, just seemed to be saying that the system sucks.
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Permalink Reply by ferret on
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I am going to wait until it comes to netflix, I don't want to pay the producers if I'm not sure I agree with the message :)
I hope we can rationally debate about and actually make some positive changes to education in the future. Right now I remain cynical.
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Permalink Reply by GreenLantern on -
I haven't seen much about this, but the argument has been hashed over for years now, and it's just now coming to a head. I don't know if they make sweeping generalizations about all public schools in general, but I've seen really bad public schools, and really good public schools, and yes, the bad ones can have a lot of blame put on the teacher's unions in those specific cases, but then you have public schools that are great that have teacher's unions as well. In places like LAUSD, the teacher's unions are a huge problem. One thing that really makes people mad is that it's pretty difficult to fire a teacher for poor performance or bad behavior. Some teacher's unions are really powerful, and that's when there are problems. Just look at the recent LA times article that listed individual teacher performances. The teacher's union was all upset that that information was made public...which it should be, since the public schools are tax payer funded.
I think there is more to it than blaming unions, though. You also have to look at where the money goes, and how much actually makes it to the classroom. We've had discussions already where those of you who are teachers talk about having to pay for classroom supplies out of pocket. I find this astonishing. I think it speaks to the amount of waste in school administration if money for pencils and paper towels isn't there for the classroom.
I understand the concern, here. The U.S. public school system is slipping compared to other countries, and I think some of the causes make people too uncomfortable to talk about, which is why sometimes the discussions are circular and never get anywhere.
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Permalink Reply by GreenLantern on
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Oh...
I should also say that when I saw the title of this movie on Apple's movie trailers, I thought it was for a sequel to Superman Returns.
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