Currently, there are two documentaries out that focus on the problems in today’s educational system: “Race to Nowhere” and “Waiting for Superman.” Both movies are poignant and emotional. Both make a strong case for why the system is failing and offer solutions for improvement. That is where the similarities end.
“Race to Nowhere” focuses on how children, starting from kindergarten, are facing tremendous pressure to excel in school and extra-curricular activities in order to get into a good college–told by society that if they don’t, they won’t be able to get a high paying job and thus their entire lives will be ruined.
Of course, no one can be the best at everything all the time, and the film interview several children who have developed emotional problems or are physically ill from the pressure. They also interview children who have become despondent and just given up trying because they can’t live up to the expectations.
“Nowhere” doesn’t blame teachers or parents, it blames society at large: Americans obsession with the “best” and the fact that Americans tend to confuse wealth with happiness and quantity with quality. “Nowhere” is also highly critical of the notion that all kids must be college bound, and all kids must excel in math or science in order to get a good job when they grow up.
“Nowhere’s” solution is for schools to give less quantity of school work/homework and instead focus on meaningful quality assignments. The belief is that the only way for children to be emotionally and physically healthy is to have a balanced life, with plenty of time for family and fun. By having a more balanced life, kids will then enjoy school more and thus do better.
“Waiting for Superman” plays exactly into what “Race to Nowhere” is critical of. “Superman” focuses primarily on poor, urban communities, but mentions that upper middle class areas face the same problems. It maintains that if children don’t get into good charter schools, then go onto college, they will wind up criminals with no hope for a good life. The film interviews several very small children (1st, 2nd and 3rd graders) who are devastated because they didn’t get into a charter school and now think their lives are forever ruined.
“Superman” stresses that without a college education, and without being good in math and science, there is no hope for a job since currently most new U.S. jobs are being developed in the technology sector.
A big portion of “Superman” is spent blaming the bloated bureaucratic government system and teachers unions for all of the problems in education. The solution Superman lays out is eliminating teacher’s unions and making all schools charter schools, with longer school days and more homework.
Both movies may be a little extreme in their biases. In the movie review I did of “Race to Nowhere” last week, I said that I whole heartedly agree with the movie’s premise of failure and solutions. But, the movie does turn a blind eye to the fact that there are some issues with poor teachers who cannot be fired. It also ignore the fact that most American middle class jobs are being outsourced these days, leaving few job options for the up and coming generation.
“Waiting for Superman” totally ignores why children become despondent and uninterested in education. It assumes the problems lie in poor teaching quality and doesn’t take into account that it could be the children’s inability to cope with social pressure to perform.
I strongly disagree with “Superman’s” solutions. Statistically speaking, charter schools are no better than regular public schools. Yes, there are some excellent charters, as well as some terrible charters, but most are in the middle—just like regular public school. The schools that consistently outperform both charters and regular public schools are magnet schools.
And magnet schools have teacher’s unions, so unions are clearly not the evil culprit the movie makes them out to be. Yes, the teacher unions are indeed protecting a handful of bad teachers, but the unions do more good than bad and should not be dismantled. The ideal solution would be for the unions to develop a fair teacher review system and to give principals discretion to fire the lowest performing educators.
While “Superman” talks a lot about the highly competitive 21st century job market, it doesn’t address the elephant in the room: job outsourcing. Maybe parents and educators should consider pressuring the government to change the laws/tax codes in ways that discourage job outsourcing. After all, don’t we have a duty to our children to make sure there are jobs for them when they grow up? To guarantee that artistic kids or kids who are not college bound can also find work as adults?
Images: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/upload/2009/12/new_documentary_race_to_nowher/rl_postcard_webrd1.jpg and http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI3ODUxODE0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODM0NzU0Mw@@._V1._SX214_CR0,0,214,314_.jpg
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Christi Grab is Parentella’s Editorial Director and author of The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part 1 – San Diego to Australia. She is currently working on book two of the series.
