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Jessie TannerEng-2010Evaluation/Review3048018034000Waiting for “Superman”Waiting for “Superman” co-written and directed by Davis Guggenheim was a very inspirational documentary about the problems with our education system. It followed multiple families in their struggle to improve the education and schooling for their children. Not only did it show the terrible schooling these children have to deal with, it shows what kind of schools they will be going into later on. With terrifyingly low test scores and high dropout rates. It was a very captivating movie depicting the struggles these families, teachers, and other education professionals have to overcome to try to change the problems. There are so many obstacles standing in their way that by the end of the film it was hard to believe that there is a solution out there that will ever be implemented. Especially since there are multiple people with multiple solutions that have been proven to work, but every time they are put into motion the teachers union and teachers who do not want change put a stop to them. One of the worst parts of this movie is that unions, which were started to help maintain the rights of teachers in a time when they were sorely mistreated, are the very thing making the educations system as terrible as it is. This documentary was one of the most heart wrenchingly depressing and moving films that I have seen. Not only did it disgust you with how the system is working but it made you want to change it, for your children and the ones whose chances of succeeding in life are so severely low. Hopefully this review will motivate you to watch this movie and help fight for the children in the world who do not have as bright of a future as we do. This documentary was an amazing piece of film. All of the different interviews and viewpoints helped to draw an overall picture of the way the education system is and why it is not working. It was very interesting to hear from all sides of the system, showing that not just the parents are concerned but everyone involved. It covered very many important topics very cohesively and in a way that made you want to listen, not only with facts but with emotional interviews with family members. There were many visuals that, although could be considered childish really helped you understand what was being discussed as well as put you into the mind set of younger children which was helpful in understanding how they are being affected by the terrible state of their schools. The TV show Rotten tomatoes gave it an 89% on their famous Tomatometer calling it an “impassioned indictment of the American school system” (Rotten Tomatoes). Any subject on children can bring on a strong reaction but this laid everything that was wrong in a way that not only disgusts you but makes you really motivated to help change the faults with the system. It gives you a lot to think about, not only with how our children are being mistreated and miss educated but also about our teachers and how the policies we have in place, such as tenure, are really harming the education system. This documentary gives a lot of clear cut facts and percentages that just make you shake your head in sadness and disbelief, it is shocking how terrible some of our schools are and yet nothing is being done about them. The movie not only shows a sad and despicable story of how the education system is failing, but also the stories of 5 children and their families. It shows the hardworking parents and that they would do anything to make it better for their children even knowing that there is not much they can do (Denby). Most of the parents were high school drop outs and they don’t want to see the same happen for their children. By the end of the film all of the families have entered into a drawing for charter schools because they believe that will be the best bet for their children. Unfortunately the odds of their children getting in are very small since so many other families are entering and there are very few slots. By the end of the film only one of the five makes it in which leaves the rest to go to the public schools in their district.23190207683500Not only does this film show the touching and inspirational stories of these families but it also gives some very sad statistics including the math and reading levels, dropout rate, and future expectations. Most of these kids that are in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade are reading and doing math on a 2nd and 3rd grade level (Waiting for “Superman”). Way too many of them are going to drop out before their senior year and if so then their future is not so bright. The ones that do graduate have a very small chance of getting into their nearby colleges. The whole film shows clearly the lack of hope that these children have because they know that they are not getting the education that they should be. The worst part is that almost everyone in the system know how bad it is, the teachers, principals, school board there just isn’t anything that they can do about it. There are too many laws in place and the unions too strong to be able to change the schools into what they should be, leaving the parents and teachers doing everything they can to keep their child caught up to the curriculum and math and reading levels, but knowing that there is only so much they can do with the system the way that it is. There are many problems highlighted in this documentary that at some points it was hard to watch. One of the worst was when they discussed the “Dance of the Lemons” and the “Failure Factories”. The “Dance of the Lemons” is caused by tenure and schools inability to fire bad teachers. Instead of firing them at the end of every school year each principle gathers up their bad teachers and passes them to another school, receiving other schools bad teachers. The hope in doing this is that you’ll get better teachers than you started with. The “Failure Factories” are high schools and middle schools given this nicks name because more than haft of the students that go there drop out. There were so many problems and ugly quirks in the school system that by the end of this film I was actually crying. I’d say that shows how great of a documentary this is and that there are some very serious problems with the education system that we really need to fix, and fast.Overall this film was one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Not only was it heartbreaking and inspirational but it was also witty and a few choice moments very amusing. This movies not only managed to make me laugh and cry but it did what whole purpose was, motivated me into wanting to help implement changes so that my children do not have to try to succeed in a system that is set up to make them fail. If I were a real movie critic I would have not only given it full stars but I would, and will tell everyone that it is a “must see”.Works Cited:Denby, David. "The New Yorker." New Yorker. (2010): n. page. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.Guggenheim, David, dir. Waiting for "Superman". Writ. Kimball. 2010. Film. 1 Nov 2012.Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster: 05 2009. Television. ................
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