Going to see 'Waiting for Superman' tonight

[Trajan]

date night tonight, French restaurant then going to see Waiting for Superman. I don't expect to walk out enthralled by its message, but hopefully will keep that rich dinner down.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Fill us in...I am interested in what the overall message is.
Anytime you have a liberal group saying that throwing money at something isn't working is intensly intriguing.

 

[Trajan]

He follows 4 kids as their parents ( 2 black 1 Hispanic 1 white) try to level up their kids to charter schools because their local schools suck (they only graduate 30-40 % of their students).

The story of the film is told against that backdrop.

the message is- the school system is a miasma of tangled special interests that is funded by state and fed. largess that totally excludes what quality ( or lack there of) of education kids receive, from the formula.

Its about the adults; their power, their money, turf and hubris. Kids are nowhere mentioned in the eqaution, typical bureaucracy, that has forgotten why its exists in the first place.

He didn't hold back and was as fair as he could be, he interviewed Jonathon Alter a wash post education reporter and Stanford proff. who specialty is education, who stated straight out that the NEA and AFT who actually have given more to democrats ( 90% vis a vis reps btw) than even public sector unions in the last 20 years and that; " the democratic party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA & AFT"....

quite refreshing to hear to hear it straight out, especially from someone of impeccable lefty credentials like Guggenheim.

There were gasps from the audience and you could hear the buzz in the theater whenever they displayed another horrid statistic or interviewed another parent whose child was put on a "track" ( which I don't think most people even realize exists or what it even entails) to nowhere based on poor performance earlier in their academic years, i.e. 4-7th grade.

Some of the districts he used as examples were in of course urban areas, but the fail is strong as it trickles down to the burbs, ( the districts by the way are almost wholly represented by members of the black congressional or Hispanic caucus..who would have thought eh?).

He covered what these school districts call the "Turkey trot", "dance of the lemons" , "pass the trash" names those he interviewed ( former school chancellors) called the process in which in that end of each school year they attempt to dump their shitty teachers on each other hoping they get an upgrade by trade, as they cannot fire them.

fun fact he provided- 1 in 57 doctors lose their lic. to practice, 1 in 200 lawyers, only 1 in 2500 teachers that have been removed from classrooms ever lose their certificate.

One chancellor from Milwaukee back in the 90's was asked to come up to the local news affiliate for an on air interview, they ambushed him; they show a video that a kid had taken in several of his classes over days ( unknow to the teachers natrually).

The teachers were filmed sleeping, reading newspapers, some were just plain gone all class etc. etc. dice games going on, kids playing cards....he tried to fire them. He couldn't, not a one. You know why.

You know I have been reading about and studying the Ed. system for years as a hobby, none of this really surprised me, but it was nice to finally see the curtain lifted, now lets see if anyone pays attention.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I need to double rep you for watching the movie and posting a review.

But I feel you and are sitting in the choir. Watching the movie, validated whatever I knew about the system already; that's why we homeschool already.

Unless one is a parent of a child in a failing school, most people will consider this a stuffy documentary with very little entertainment value. I've asked several of my friends to watch this movie, but none have gone to see it. I understand we are all busy running around getting the day-to-day things done, but this situation is dire.