Are You Still Waiting For Superman?

I am not a teacher myself, but I have many ties to the school system. My mother is a teacher, my step-mother is a teacher, my mother-in-law was a substitute teacher, my grandmother worked in a school her entire working life, and my son is about to go into kindergarten. I am surrounded by discussions of curriculum, behavior, testing, lotteries, and No Child Left Behind. The educational system in this country is very present in my life.

I was recently given the opportunity to view the new documentary Waiting For Superman. This viewing was sponsored by Savvy Source and Paramount and I feel very privileged to have been included. It has taken me a bit to get my thoughts together in order to write this review, because you will leave this movie having experienced a roller-coaster of emotion. You will laugh, hurt, get angry, get frustrated, and most likely cry. I certainly did. And as I’ve read in several places now, if you have a child going into the school system or were ever in it yourself, you have to see this movie.

Waiting For Superman is a documentary that follows five children at different stages of education, all trying to find good public educational opportunities. It talks about the challenges that this country faces in terms of claiming to have limited resources for education, yet spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on things that don’t seem to make sense. It also delves into what seem to be some of the larger fundamental problems: all of the money granting agencies (city, state, and federal) have rules that have to be followed and none of them are the same.

The other major focus of the movie is the Teacher’s Union. I am sure that this is going to be the area that will be discussed the most. I can’t stop thinking about it.

The Union was established many years ago when most teachers were women who were not being compensated or treated in a fair manner. The idea behind unifying everyone was that they would all be treated the same and they would all get the same privileges and benefits. What seems to be the problem today is that everyone is treated the same and they all get the same benefits. A fantastic teacher cannot be compensated or pointed out in any way and a poor or uncaring teacher cannot be fired. It is part of deal.

I left the movie feeling that a revolution was about to start and that I was going to be part of it. It made me angry, frustrated, and motivated. We need to make some major changes. These changes have to involve what’s best for the children, not the governing agencies. Whatever it takes to revamp the system, we need to do it.

The title of the movie comes from the idea that as a child, we wait for Superman to come save us from our problems. We develop these grand notions that some unseen figure will fly through and fix everything. As you get older, you realize that these things aren’t real. We need to do this ourselves. Whatever it takes. For our children.