Posts Tagged ‘Waiting for Superman’

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Friday, July 8th, 2011

A group of New York City parents and teachers recently released a new documentary called “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman.” This film was created in response to last year’s documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” which essentially argued, through the incredibly emotional story of several young children, that the only solution to fixing our broken education system is to dismantle teachers unions and turn all schools into charters.

All the information and statistics provided in “Waiting for Superman” were indeed true, but the director, Davis Guggenheim, created an inaccurate picture of the public and charters school systems by omitting some key facts that, if disclosed, would have changed the picture drastically.

“The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman” fills in a majority of these missing facts. It gives a more accurate picture of the education system today and what solutions are truly in the best interest of our students. The film opens with the fact that New York City Mayor Bloomberg changed the way schools were run when he took office in 2002. At the time, districts were fairly autonomous; he made them centralized, taking away the local power of parents and teachers to educate according to the needs of the individual communities.

With the power to dictate changes, one of the things Bloomberg did was open up many charter schools. Two out if every three charters were put into existing school campuses. The teachers interviewed in “TITBWFS” point out that, by having less space, the regular public schools were in essence sabotaged. Class sizes grew because of lack of classrooms. Electives had to be cut for the same reason. Resources were often pulled from the public school to the charter.

“Superman” highlighted a few exceptional New York City charters, but neglected to mention that on average, charter schools don’t perform as well as regular public schools. “TITBWFS” interviews some parents who used to have their kids in these same “exceptional” schools mentioned in “Superman.” These schools only look exceptional on paper because they kick out kids who are poor performers, are English Language Learners, and have special needs (i.e. IEP or 501 Plan). Of course, since the charters have taken the cream of the crop, it makes the public schools look even worse because they have a disproportionate number of kids who will never test well.

“Superman” argues that the reason charters are better is because they are run by private companies (using public tax money), so they lack government bureaucracy. But more importantly, they also lack tenure and teachers unions—unions protecting bad teachers is, Guggenheim argues, the root of the educational crises. However, Guggenheim left out an important statistic: the lowest performing states in the nation in education happen to be the states where there are no teacher’s unions. “TITBWFS” points out that charters are often run by corporations that don’t have the same oversight that school districts do. If parents in public schools have a problem at the school, they can take it to the district—there is no higher authority at a charter.

In this summary, I cannot cover everything the film brought up—this was just a taste. I would recommend that everyone watch “TITBWFS” to make sure you have your facts straight when it comes to the pros and cons of charters and teachers unions. They will even mail you a copy for free! See the trailer here.

I personally think “TITBWFS” did a good job of presenting the information, however, not being professional movie makers like Guggenheim, they weren’t able to tug on people’s heart strings as masterfully as he did. While they did use some compelling imagery, it wasn’t visually artistic (i.e., just the right camera angles) like “Superman.” Sadly, while the facts are on the side of “TITBWFS,” I think most will be swayed by Guggenheim’s unbalanced movie simply because it is more “Hollywood-y.”

image credit: http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Chartersdontwantyou.jpg

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Christi Grab is the author of The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part 1 – San Diego to Australia.

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Posted in Charter Schools, Christi Grab, Education Policy, Education Reform, Media, Public Schools, Special Needs Students | 12 Comments »

Waiting for Tiger Mom?

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Forget Superman (from the film Waiting for Superman).

Maybe you’ve heard of “Tiger Mom.” That’s the alias for 48 year-old Yale professor Amy Chua, whose book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” is causing

quite the controversy. She’s been all over the media, interviewed by anyone and everyone.  Time magazine did an story about her, saying that she writes a “proudly politically incorrect” account of raising her children “the Chinese way.”

A main point of Ms. Chua that catches my attention is not how she lambastes Western parenting for allowing kids to spend hours on Facebook and video games rather than work on academics, but rather her notion that we (the West) have given our children a false sense of achievement and accomplishment by constant praise, for even the most simple of things that she says

are not worthy of praise. This artificial praise, she claims, has resulted in a false ego, if you will, where kids think they don’t need to study (hard) because they are artificially content with their knowledge base.

"Tiger Mom" thinks we (the West) use these too often

Having been an educator for more than a decade, I’m convinced there’s some merit to Tiger Mom’s notions. But I don’t think Western parenting is the only possible culprit (and don’t get me wrong, nobody is saying Western parents don’t mean well). I believe schools are complicit too. Here’s an example: for this year’s high-stakes state tests, students were rewarded (heavily) at my school for attendance during the test, perceived effort (because we can’t check their answers), and for completing it. Rewards? Ice cream and pizza, days where the uniform policy could be circumvented, and certificates, of course. But forget the test, because there is some logic in incentive there. How about this: my school rewarded students (and they had quite the publicity campaign about this) for returning their textbooks at the end of the year. So in essence, we’re saying this: here’s a reward for bringing back the free books we loaned you, which provide you with knowledge for your future, which if you don’t return (the books) you’ll be ineligible to graduate. What’s next? Rewarding kids for smiling? For bringing a pencil?

Yeah, I know I’m ranting a bit, but my colleagues and I see a current crop of students who seem more aned more to have a sense of entitlement; who are upset if not rewarded for the smallest of things; who are, as Tiger Mom says, convinced that they don’t have to work very hard because they’re ready for the real world. After all, that chocolate bar for doing the math lesson was all they needed to know they’re ready for college and the real world. Funny, I don’t get a chocolate bar for teaching all day. Am I doing a poor job of teaching?

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Mr. Franklin has been teaching for the Los Angeles Unified School District for eleven years. He has won District and County Teacher of the Year awards, as well as the prestigious Bank of America Community Hero award. Before teaching, he spent five years at Learning Forum, which runs summer camps world-wide that increase student academic potential.

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Posted in Steve Franklin | 7 Comments »

“Race to Nowhere” vs. “Waiting for Superman”

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

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.

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Posted in Charter Schools, Christi Grab, Education Policy, Education Reform, Magnet Schools, Media, Public Schools | 21 Comments »

Waiting for Superman: A Convenient Truth?

Monday, September 27th, 2010

It has been said that the new documentary film Waiting for Superman is to education what An Inconvenient Truth was to climate change. There are moving songs, clever animation, mind-boggling statistics, and steady narration. All that is missing is Al Gore. The film (made by the same person who made An Inconvenient Truth) was released several days ago.

I had seen previews for it, and as a teacher, I had to see it. I was revved up and watched the film. There was nothing in it that surprised me.

During

the 1970s, as our nation was buzzing from a period of great fights for civil rights and equality, magnet schools were introduced. A primary purpose of these schools was to alleviate inequality by busing kids of all races to better schools. The film goes on to mention that not much has changed in terms of equality (or lack thereof).

The U.S. Department of Education, passed into law during the Carter administration and launched by the Reagan administration, became the federal government’s chief instrument to help in an issue that was constitutionally left to states.

The 1990s brought the voucher movement and the seeds for charter schools were planted.

During the 2000s, President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act was implemented–perhaps the greatest use of federal “power” to shape education reform. Standardized testing became more important.

Now, in 2010, the Obama Administration has launched the Race to the Top grant program to encourage schools to update educational strategies, teaching methods and enhance curriculum to meet tougher federal standards.

With all of this happening, you’d think education in America would have received the boost it needed to bring the U.S. ranking in worldwide education higher, but it hasn’t (the film notes that U.S. students currently rank a dreadful 21st and 25th in math and science, respectively, when compared to other developed nations).

The film focuses on several families whose childrens’ educational future rests on a lottery system designed to randomly pick students for the few “spots” available in better charter schools (e.g. 30 available spots and 700 applicants). In the end, several families are thrilled while others are tear-ridden, knowing their children will be attending inferior local public schools.

Teachers’ unions say the film is antagonist, and seems to blame teachers for every woe

in public education. A very interesting point in the film is when the chief of Washington D.C.’s schools has an inventive idea for teachers: give up tenure and we’ll pay you six figures, or keep tenure and have your salary unchanged. The D.C. union leaders are so opposed to the idea that they won’t even allow it to go up for a union vote.

Being that I teach at a school that by all standardized accounts is “failing,” but I see incredible educational successes on a daily basis, I have mixed feelings about the aim of the film. Surely, the filmmakers makes a strong case for reform. Nothing in the film is untrue. The problem is that it fails to mention the many triumphs in public education. ”Superman” is the film’s metaphor for a great teacher, and one may leave the theater convinced that without a Superman, success is not possible. I know otherwise.

Until there is drastic reform and giving-in by both “sides” (unions and school districts), very little will change. In the meantime, don’t wait for Superman. The odds of winning the lottery are very low. However, when there are 30 spots at a school available and 700 applicants, the 670 who don’t win don’t have to lose. They shouldn’t take a defeatist attitude of, “I didn’t get in, I’m out of luck.”

As the old saying goes, when life gives us lemons, make lemonade. On a daily basis, I see lemonade made by people who aren’t rendered helpless by Kryptonite. I would tell the families who “lose” the educational lottery to see the glass as half-full, and make the best of what you do have. True, it will be much easier for some families than for others.

My issue isn’t the film, but rather it’s title. It is implied that nothing good is possible unless Superman comes. I know this to be incorrect. I’ve seen super things done by the combined forces of mortals. Give your local school a chance: low scores do not necessarily mean poor quality education. Try not to judge a book by it’s cover. After all, Superman is fiction.

See the trailer here. Check out Parentella’s review of the other educational movie in the theaters now, “Race to Nowhere.” Also, read Parentella’s analysis of how these two movies compare.

Image credit: http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI3ODUxODE0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODM0NzU0Mw@@._V1._SX214_CR0,0,214,314_.jpg

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Mr. Franklin is a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is an eleven year veteran and has won District and County Teacher of the Year awards. He was also a recipient of the prestigious Bank of America Community Hero award. Before teaching, he spent five years at Learning Forum, which runs summer camps designed to increase student academic potential. It is a world-wide program.

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Posted in Steve Franklin | 16 Comments »