Would you want to live in a country where the most accessible route to learning—the public education system—is failing its students? A country where, according to the nonprofit research organization Editorial Projects in Education, three out of every 10 high school students won’t earn a diploma?
Sounds like a regressive nation, right? Well, it’s where you live: the grand ole U.S.. And Davis Guggenheim, the director of the Academy Award-winning global warming warning An Inconvenient Truth, isn’t afraid to talk about it.
His latest documentary, Waiting for ‘Superman,’ presents a stirring chronicle of the lives of five public school kids to more intimately reveal the American education system’s chronic missteps, setbacks and disadvantages.
“Ultimately, I said, if I don’t do it, who will?” Guggenheim said of the decision to take on the controversial topic.
“That’s when the rubber hits the road. It’s easy to be angry at the man,” he said. “But when you actually have to discover stuff that’s really uncomfortable and still write it, even if it’s unpopular, that’s a real tough journalistic choice.”
At a time when the country’s economy is still recuperating from a devastating downturn, picking apart the underwhelming rank of its education system is increasingly important. Many education advocates from both major political parties believe graduation rates affect employment rates positively: increased graduation makes for a more employable workforce, and vice versa.
Math scores of fourth-grade students in the U.S. ranked 11th worldwide, according to a 2007 study by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which is associated with the National Center for Education Statistics and globally facilitated by the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Countries ahead of the U.S. include Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Singapore and Hong Kong (first place). Eighth-grade students in the U.S. fared slightly better, ranking ninth.
In science, fourth-grade pupils landed in the eighth spot, slightly behind England and only 39 points above the international average. Singapore, the top-ranking nation, is in the lead, with almost 50 points more than the U.S. and a total of 87 notches above the average. Among eighth-grade students, scores placed the U.S. in the 11th slot.
‘Superman’ does more than nudge at viewers’ emotions. The portrayals of earnest yet underprivileged youths grip the heartstrings with an iron fist, and yank repeatedly—hard. It’s difficult to not be moved by Daisy, the L.A. fifth-grader intent on success, or Anthony, a child in the same grade, living with his grandmother after losing his father to drugs. And Bianca, the adorable Harlem kindergartner, whose mother cannot afford to maintain her enrollment in parochial school, is also quite the tearjerker. To make emotional matters even more unstable, all of these students and their families gamble their educational hopes in a lottery, where random winners gain entrance to high-performing charter schools.
Guggenheim features several charter schools with high success rates: the KIPP schools (a network of national college-preparatory schools focused on enrolling disadvantaged students), YES Prep Public Schools, and Harlem Children’s Zone (Harlem-centric). All of them, some of which boast astounding numbers like 100 percent acceptance rates of high school seniors entering four-year colleges, are free and open to the public—but only if your number is drawn in a lottery, which is, by law, a random ordeal.
Though some criticized the documentary for relying too heavily on charters as a solution (one that’s clearly not available to all youth) to the country’s educational woes, Guggenheim said that he wanted to express that the methods of charters should be considered an ideal model for public schools.
“You can use [those high-performing charters] as an incubator for what works. Take those ideas and put them in mainstream schools,” Guggenheim said. “It’s really easy. Great teachers, high standards focusing on a pathway to college and longer school days. I know that’s unpopular, longer hours and longer days. But the point is, it’s not a mystery what works.”.
The complexities of incorporating charter school practices into public schools, however, are vast. In particular, ‘Superman´ points to teachers unions as an obstacle.
“I’m a liberal, so I believe in unions. I really believe. I’m a member of a really good union; I believe unions are really important. To realize when you really dig in that they have been a real obstacle to real change…that really put me at a crossroads,” he said.
The film points to tenure, a union-driven plus for teachers, professors and other instructors that protects them from being fired for personal or political reasons, as a well-meaning endeavor that’s backfiring in a harsh way. The film positions tenure as a scapegoat for sub-par and even completely reckless teachers, as firing a public school teacher who’s earned tenure is costly, time-consuming and, as a result, an unlikely possibility.
Guggenheim’s documentary also calls out the Democratic Party as the largest beneficiary of funding from teachers unions, but a stagnant contributor to progressive change.
“When you look at some of the culprits to [the education system’s problems], finding out that my own party, the Democratic Party, which stands for protecting the little guy, has been mostly quiet on this issue because it gets so much money not to do it…blew my mind,” he said.
But the documentary opens with Guggenheim driving past an allegedly failing public school as he takes his own children to private school. Guggenheim admitted some hypocrisy in his decision to opt for private learning.
“If we’re going to fix the schools, all the adults have to clean up their act. Starting with me—I pulled my kids out of public school and I sent them to private school. People like me have to recommit to helping their local school,” Guggenheim said.
He explained that most educational funding is generated and delegated at the state level, and that “the real change has to happen in the state capitols,” and encouraged political participation.
“For those students in your college, you’re the ones who made it,” he said. “When you see this movie, it should feel really, really unfair that there are many kids [who] don’t have the opportunity that you guys have. That are just as bright, that want just as many things, but were not given a great education. And that sense of unfairness, I think, should inspire people to get more involved.”
Waiting for ‘Superman’ is playing at United Artists Tara Cinemas (345 Cheshire Bridge Road) beginning Friday, Oct. 8. For showtimes, call 404-634-5661 or visit www.fandango.com. For more on the film, visit www.waitingforsuperman.com.
