Superman an effective rallying cry for reform

FILM | Chuck Koplinski

Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman has become a hot-button film and it’s easy to see why. Using facts and figures, dramatic charts and simple cartoons, he vividly documents the various failures of our national school system. Americans have known this for years, but the way in which the film zeros in on specific aspects of this problem has a galvanizing effect.

As propaganda, Superman is an effective tool and it’s correct in focusing on ineffective teachers and school systems that are adrift. Yet as presented here, the director’s perception of public schools is simplistic and fails to address the complex problems they face. Yes, bad teachers and the difficulty in getting rid of them is a contributing factor. But there are many other factors that fail to get mentioned. Equally troubling is that Guggenheim offers little in the way of constructive criticism and in the end he puts forth the notion that the public school system is hopelessly broken and the only hope for students lies in charter schools.

Charter schools are pubic schools paid for by public money, but privately run. As such, there’s limited enrollment in them. Guggenheim grabs us once he focuses on five young students who are suffering in their schools for a variety of reasons. They hope to get chosen to go to a charter school but, as done through a lottery, the odds are long for admission. The worst-case scenario involves Nakia, a second grader from Harlem who’s one of 767 children applying for 35 spots in her local charter school.

Guggenheim puts a human face on this problem by focusing on Nakia and her peers.

It’s then that the film finds the fire it needs to push its agenda. Without question, it’s unconscionable to deny educational opportunity to anyone and when some of these children lose out in their respective lotteries, there’s a sense that this is an event that will have an unalterable effect on them. Yet in the end, Guggenheim is doing the system a disservice by failing to offer up solutions and recommending that abandoning a sinking ship when there isn’t enough room in the lifeboats is the only option.

Contact Chuck Koplinski at [email protected].