Eye Candy #510 - "Waiting for Superman"

Waiting for Superman:  This documentary focuses on the failures of the American public education system since the 1970‘s, from declining success and graduation rates to various economic inequities and union inertia, all preventing widespread systemic change that is likely decades overdue, while sharing plenty of the visible government hype about “no child left behind“ and so forth that aren‘t ever realized beyond the campaign promise stage as it‘s derailed by  a lack of will, special interests meddling, and bureaucracy.  Splitting time between focusing on several “maverick” educators including the highly-visible Geoffrey Canada (he appeared in an American Express commercial detailing his school program) that have been able to generate results above the norm by functioning outside the accepted system, as well as several students from different locations and socioeconomic levels around the country and their efforts to get into private and charter schools and out of the public system.  A lot of blame is laid at the feet of the powerful teachers unions.   One of the journalists in the film describes the Democratic Party as the paid federal arm of the union.  Some of their most egregious practices are outlined, included NYC’s infamous “rubber room” (which has since been discontinued, though the backlog of teachers there hasn’t been cleared), its general unwillingness to institute merit pay or do away with tenure for underperforming teachers.  And it’s not a criticism without merit.   It breaks your heart to watch students fall through the cracks, as the system that , as former DC chancellor Michelle Rhee states, “ all becomes about the adults”.  One can only hope that this film outrages and moves just as many people as Guggenheim’s Oscar-winning “An Inconvenient Truth”.   Woodchuck sez, “Must see.”