Waiting for Superman is a powerful documentary exposing America's failing school system. In this movie, he depicts families who are struggling but are willing to sacrifice everything in order to afford their child a better education. The kids in this movie all have some type of hardship whether its family struggles or academic struggles, but they have someone vital in their life that knows and understands the power of education.
Canada also sheds light on the way the school system works behind closed doors as far as the teacher's well being. He speaks of the "lemon dance", this is when a teacher has done a horrible job in teaching her students but they move them around from school to school instead of fire them. How RIDICULOUS. How can it be that you know this teacher is not educating her students but yet she can keep teaching, just at another school? That's doing to students an injustice. The focus of the school system should not be giving the teachers a job but insuring that all students get the best education possible.
I truly enjoyed this documentary; it opened my eyes to so much that needs to be done in the education system. Me being the type person I am, I took it as there is a lot that I need to do to help improve the education system. Seeing those kids saddened because their number wasn’t picked or name wasn’t called, because they were trying to get into a charter school because the public school system had failed them. There is work for ME to do. Witnessing that mother crying because her child couldn’t graduate at her private school because she didn’t make the payments, let me know that there is work for ME to do. That little girl should have been able to go to a public school and get a proficient education, this is America, and enough of our tax dollars go towards education that it makes NO SENSE for the public school system to be failing. This character schools had as many as 792 applicants and 40 spaces, all kids hoping to get out of the public school system. Something has got to change; improvement must be in our forecast. No I I’m not God, superman or any other person with almighty power, but I do have some power. Power to become the best educator I can be, so that I can be a POWERFUL source in changing the public school system of today!
