Waiting for Superman is an amazing movie that will leave you in awe at the state of the education system of the United States. This film is more than a documentary, it is art. The fact that children in the U.S. are deprived of key elements of their education is astonishing. For example, [a recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900. Nearly 20 percent did not know who the U.S. fought in World War II, eleven percent thought that Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president forced from office by the Watergate scandal, and another 11 percent thought it was Harry Truman.]. “Clueless in America” By Bob Herbert http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19786.htm
This fact is startling and unacceptable, but unfortunately, it is true. Some statistic reports of children in the United States education system are appalling and many Americans are frequently startled and offended by these reports. Many often choose to rebel against these findings and label them as fabrications just as the producers, creators and participants of the film were accused of fabricating and exaggerating the truth. However, as a child that was educated in public schools and as the child of a public school educator, I know how this particular system operates and caring for students whole heartedly and ensuring their absolute success is not the priority of a majority of these establishments. The priority is meeting quotas and offering children “drive-by” educations (simply put: instilling students with what the school wants the children to know rather than what the child needs to know for complete triumph in life). Most schools have one specific amount of standardized tests and a specific amount of lessons to relay by the end of the school year. When these deadlines aren’t met, this draws negative attention to the institution and occasionally causes the school to lose some of its funding. School administrators do not want this to occur, so they place obscene amounts of energy into drilling state requirements into the minds of the children versus drilling knowledge that the children will remember and find value in as adults.
This film offered a mirror to the current pitiful state of American public school systems. For some odd reason, America has never liked having attention brought to its shortcomings; this is why “Waiting for Superman” was criticed by many as an exaggeration. Even at the screening of the film held here at The Fort Valley State University, a fellow student that I frequently associate with sincerely believed that many of the characters in the documentary were paid actors, rather than actual citizens that were (are) suffering from this depressive moment in their children’s lives. When I asked him why he thought this, he replied that they sounded scripted and too pitiful. I cannot relate to the scripted belief, but I agree with the characters seeming pitiful and that was an accurate portrayal. This situation is very pitiful. I could relate to the majority of the kids in the film, however I can’t fathom the thought of having my opportunity of a better education placed in the random selection of a lottery, I didn’t even know this circumstance existed, until I was given the chance to see a prolific movie entitled, “Waiting for Superman”. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you do.
