Waiting for "Superman"

2010 "The fate of our country won't be decided on a battlefield, it will be determined in a classroom."
7.4| 1h51m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 24 September 2010 Released
Producted By: Paramount Vantage
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

Genre

Documentary

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Waiting for "Superman" (2010) is now streaming with subscription on Paramount+

Director

Davis Guggenheim

Production Companies

Paramount Vantage

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Waiting for "Superman" Audience Reviews

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
cricketbat Waiting for Superman features a lot of interesting information, but I feel like this documentary spends too much time addressing what the problem is, and not enough time discussing why it's that way or how we can fix it. This movie is worth a watch, but it doesn't live up to the hype surrounding it.
miriam-silva3 Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". The United States is an influential country with the ability to build itself from scratch and expand to being the third largest country in the world. Although being the third largest country, the United States lacks the ability to maintain its rank in "The most educated country" (according to Michael B. Sauter) while Russia and Canada maintain their rank in both categories (being the biggest countries and most educated). Director Davis Guggenheim sheds light on issues that led to the failures of the American Public education system. Throughout the documentary we see parents struggle to find a charter school that would provide their children with a brighter future. One of the factors that contributes to the failures of the public education system is the teacher tenure reform. The teacher tenure reform is a policy that restricts principals from firing teachers after they have served a certain amount of years teaching. Moreover, the tenure is a policy that strictly protects teachers from the power of the administration or school board, whom have a personal issue with a specific teacher, and guarantees a job to teachers who have serve the longest term in a school. Although a tenure protects a teacher from being fired, Geoffrey Canada states that tenures do not protect students from lazy teachers who aren't making an effort to educate the future generation. Eric Hanushek, a researcher at Stanford University states "a good teacher is what's working and a bad teacher is what's not working", which is seen in a study which indicated that students with a "good teacher" can progress three times more than students who have a "bad" teacher, and a good teacher can cover a hundred and fifty percent more of the curriculum whereas a "bad teacher" can only cover fifty percent of the curriculum. The inability to get rid of teachers who are not willing to do their job does not only impact the children but the community in overall, as standardized scores are low, which prevents people from settling down in an area that does not provide any positive accommodations for families.Furthermore, teacher unions are another factor that contribute to the failures of the American education system. Throughout the film, Michelle Rhee, a former chancellor of the public schools in D.C struggled as she tried to wipe out public schools administration and faculty who did not meet the standards. As Rhee tries to advocate for change that would benefit the students, many public schools administration and faculty did not agree. Rhee's plan to transform D.C public schools began by firing administration and faculty that did not meet the qualifications. By the end of the year Rhee had fired thirty- six principals, closed twenty-three schools, and had about fifty-seven teachers re-apply for their job. Furthermore, part of the reconstruction of the new education system in D.C included a proposal that would hopefully convince teachers to terminate their ten year tenure. Rhee proposal offered teachers the choice to terminate their tenure and earn a salary of six figures or keep their tenure and get a modest rate. As a result, unions began to organize, due to the economic threat that would cause disagreement within the education community.Additionally, Guggenheim integrates Geoffrey Canada, an American activist, educator, and CEO, view of the education system. Canada's goal as a CEO is to increase graduations rate for both high school's and college. Within the documentary Canada makes an important statement in which he correlates urbanization with education. Canada emphasizes how millions of kids walk the streets, with no diploma, and skills. The inability to get an education critically affects the growth of a neighborhood. Guggenheim states "a failing neighborhood is due to failing schools", Canada supports his theory as he visit his neighborhood in Pittsburg, where half of the prisoners, of the local jail, are drop- out students, and surprisingly are harder to maintain (compared to paying tuition to a private school to provided good quality learning), due to the money wasted to accommodate prisoners. With a similar goal Steve Barr, founder of The Green Dot Public school in Los Angeles, California tried to increase graduation rate in neighborhoods with low standardized test. According to Steve Barr, Locke High School in Los Angeles, California was one of the worst High Schools who lost around sixty-six percent of the freshmen class within the transition between 9th and 10th grade. Barr solution to improve graduations rate focused on rebuilding a new system of schools known as charter schools, and as a result the drop out factory Locke became a charter school and was on its way to success, as standardized scores increased. Charter school across the country became a phenomenon due to the success of their students. In the documentary, the Esparza, Jones and Hill's try to look for the best qualified charter schools for their children to attend. Although many parents look for qualified schools, the process to get admitted depends on the lucky number being drawn. Since Charter Schools are independently run and don't follow the educational curriculum as public schools, many parents see charter schools as a better future for their children , however , the limited space prevents many students from getting a better education, which is seen as one out of the three children get admitted to a charter school.Our children are our future, and therefore we must provide them with the best education, but not just any ordinary education, an education that is not just shown but learned, an education that will prepare them for life. The inability of students to perform well is due to the deteriorating education system and disagreements between the heads and educational providers that have made education collapse around the country. Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. 2010.
mitzter69 The 'experts' seems to only consist of the discredited Geoffrey Canada, Michael Rhee and Bill Gates. Guggenheim should feel ashamed to have written this. He comes across as a complete lackey for corporate interests and a faux leftie (that pretends he has a conscience and cares but at the end of the day doesn't care about anyone but himself and family). Instead of looking at why teachers burn out, what has changed since the 70s, or even the great question of what effect inequity in wealth causes, Guggenheim takes the easy road of his corporate masters and attacks teachers and unions. Shameful and harmful!
Mountain-Storm I was disappointed by the one-sidedness of this movie. Without any comment from the teacher's unions, at least in the first hour the bias is palpable. I turned off the movie when I realised it was trying to blame teachers and unions for all the problems in our education system, an education system that in itself is fraudulent. As a former teacher, I know how difficult it can be to teach a classroom full of innercity kids - sometimes 35 to a class. Research shows that small class size helps with learning tremendously, and those teachers this movie is labelling 'bad' - are not being given a chance to speak. I'm sure they have valuable perspectives to add, and this movie would be more credible if it allowed those teachers to speak out.With the aim to reward 'good' teachers, what exactly do you measure what is good. A teacher should be a model of emotional intelligence, adept at peaceful conflict resolution, have excellent communication, compassion, understanding, positive enthusiasm as well as intelligence. A teacher should also care for the child's emotional well-being and whole self. It seems the producers of this movie are solely concerned with math and reading scores - which are such a superficial measurement for success in a teacher- student relationship. Unfortunately the education system has convinced the majority of parents that this is the measurement to use. The education system has been set up that way, and it is a fraud. I would like to see the teacher's unions come up with their own documentary - then let's see the OTHER side of the story.Viewers beware of this movie, but most of you won't will you, because you have bought into the system, you have allowed the programers to delude you into thinking the education system should all be about reading, writing and maths.