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A Must See.....Waiting for Superman


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  • 4 weeks later...
The teacher of the year from my school went to an event about this film a couple of weeks ago.

 

It should really be interesting because we will be attending the screening with other parents from our school and many of the teachers, including tour current First Grade teacher and our Kindergarten teacher (both top-notch teachers!).

 

Bill

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It should really be interesting because we will be attending the screening with other parents from our school and many of the teachers, including tour current First Grade teacher and our Kindergarten teacher (both top-notch teachers!).

 

Bill

 

It may be interesting, but I do not think most really good teachers would be upset by this movie. (Based on the previews.) My dad was a good teacher (he has since retired) and he was not threatened by fair minded reform efforts or attempts to fairly describe problems with the system. He is also supportive of charter schools and homeschooling.

 

Tell us what you think once you have seen it!

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It may be interesting, but I do not think most really good teachers would be upset by this movie. (Based on the previews.) My dad was a good teacher (he has since retired) and he was not threatened by fair minded reform efforts or attempts to fairly describe problems with the system. He is also supportive of charter schools and homeschooling.

 

Tell us what you think once you have seen it!

 

My mother (a talented former elementary school teacher) is the same. Most of the teachers at are school are going to the screening. I think that's pretty indicative that they are forward thinking. One of my favorite teachers (a man with whom I've become fast friends) home schools (in partnership with his wife) his own children.

 

I know very little about the particulars of the film at this point. But I am looking forward to seeing it. We are in an all-to-rare position of being at a school that is a highly functioning (and frankly outstanding) school. But our district (to say nothing of the nation) has plenty of schools that are not functioning well at all.

 

At some point it comes down to parental involvement in the schools and with their individual children. But I'm very interested to see what education reform ideas the film puts forward. I'm very pro-education be it public schools, charter schools, private schools, or home schools. Every child deserves a good education and that is not happening now.

 

Bill

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Well we went to see "Waiting for Superman" last night at Paramount Studios with a large number of teachers from our school (including our past and current teacher) and many of the most active parents from our Schools Booster Club.

 

The film was very compelling. It is a "message film" whose central messages are that the most important part of school's success is to have effective teachers in the classroom and that teachers unions and the tenure system have undermined schools by keeping unqualified and unmotivated teacher in the classroom. And that even schools in economically deprived, poverty stricken areas can succeed (against the common stereotype to the contrary) if there are school administrators, teachers, and parent who are motivated to make a difference. And that that often requires an accountability from teachers (including potential job loss for incompetent teachers).

 

The film follows hopeful children and parents with dim prospects of escaping the "drop-out factory" schools in their neighborhoods, but have the hope of escape in the form of high-performing charter-schools dangled in from of them in the form of long-shot lotteries. The final moments are heart-beaching and emotional.

 

The film is a little simplistic in its portrayal of some of the problems, including side-stepping parental responsibility in children's education.

 

My sense is the teachers present had a pretty high opinion of the film. And it did spark a great deal of discussion. Hopefully (as is the film's mission) the kind of discussions we had will be repeated nation wide.

 

While there is no one simple fix it is an insane situation to live in where a 3 year prison sentence costs the State far more than a high quality K-12 education at a private school. We pay on many levels for failing schools, and the human cost is gut wrenching.

 

Bill

Edited by Spy Car
Misspelling incompetent is never good
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Just watched the trailer on youtube. It looks like a much needed awakening. I'm concerned that the writer is the 'Inconvenient Truth' guy...but maybe this one actually does tell the truth. I'm in. When it comes out, I plan to see it.

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Thank you for posting your review, Bill. As a PS teacher in a failing school, I am very interested in this movie. Does it discuss 90-90-90 schools? I have been working to incorporate some of the 90-90-90 techniques in my classroom, and I have seen some great results. We had a ten percent increase in math graduation test pass rate last year by implementing new strategies (and dumping some dead weight in the department.)

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Thank you for posting your review, Bill. As a PS teacher in a failing school, I am very interested in this movie. Does it discuss 90-90-90 schools? I have been working to incorporate some of the 90-90-90 techniques in my classroom, and I have seen some great results. We had a ten percent increase in math graduation test pass rate last year by implementing new strategies (and dumping some dead weight in the department.)

 

Caroline, the film doesn't mention 90-90-90 and not being familiar with the term I don't know if they touched on the technique without giving it a name.

 

I do think you would get a great deal from seeing the film, even if the daily realities of dealing with problems makes some of the conclusions nothing you didn't already know. To a person the teachers I spoke with spoke highly of their impressions. It does get a debate going.

 

In one scene Michelle Ree, who took over the superintendents job in Washington DC (which has perhaps the worst schools in the nation) offered the teachers union a contract choice. Teachers could choose to either work under the old contract with tenure (and make about $57K a year) or work without tenure and risk losing their jobs if they proved incompetent but make well over $100,000 a year. The union would not even allow a vote.

 

I'm not an anti-unionist, and know that gifted teachers who "rock the boat" could be retaliated against if not for some protections, but clearly there is a big problem with "dead-wood" in the schools (like I need to tell you) and those bad teachers drag down the whole system.

 

It is an interesting and thought provoking film. It is an advocacy film and not totally "balanced" but there is a place for films with a point-of-view and this one is successful on many levels, including having dramatic value. It will (I assume) upset you, even if you like the picture, but I think you will find it meaningful.

 

Bill

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90-90-90 schools are schools with over 90% of students on free/reduced lunch, over 90% minority population, and over 90% graduation rate. I work at a school with 90% free/reduced lunch and 95% minority population. We aren't at 90% graduation rate. However, we are unique in our school district with most schools have almost no poverty. Our school is pretty gerrymandered, so to speak.

Don't get me wrong, I love where I work. I love teaching AP Calculus to first generation high school attendees, let alone graduates. (And I make them do group math work. I am probably scarring them for life..;))

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90-90-90 schools are schools with over 90% of students on free/reduced lunch, over 90% minority population, and over 90% graduation rate. I work at a school with 90% free/reduced lunch and 95% minority population. We aren't at 90% graduation rate. However, we are unique in our school district with most schools have almost no poverty. Our school is pretty gerrymandered, so to speak.

Don't get me wrong, I love where I work. I love teaching AP Calculus to first generation high school attendees, let alone graduates. (And I make them do group math work. I am probably scarring them for life..;))

 

You are doing noble work. :001_smile:

 

Bill

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90-90-90 schools are schools with over 90% of students on free/reduced lunch, over 90% minority population, and over 90% graduation rate. I work at a school with 90% free/reduced lunch and 95% minority population. We aren't at 90% graduation rate. However, we are unique in our school district with most schools have almost no poverty. Our school is pretty gerrymandered, so to speak.

Don't get me wrong, I love where I work. I love teaching AP Calculus to first generation high school attendees, let alone graduates. (And I make them do group math work. I am probably scarring them for life..;))

 

WOW!!! That is an awesome work you are doing.

 

Faithe

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90-90-90 schools are schools with over 90% of students on free/reduced lunch, over 90% minority population, and over 90% graduation rate. I work at a school with 90% free/reduced lunch and 95% minority population. We aren't at 90% graduation rate. However, we are unique in our school district with most schools have almost no poverty. Our school is pretty gerrymandered, so to speak.

Don't get me wrong, I love where I work. I love teaching AP Calculus to first generation high school attendees, let alone graduates. (And I make them do group math work. I am probably scarring them for life..;))

 

Teachers like you do not get thanked enough for the concern you have for your students and the work you put in to help them. I was lucky enough to have some teachers like you, and I will never, ever forget them. A huge thumbs up for you.

 

I'm going to have to see the movie. At this point, I'm not sure what to make of the message.

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I haven't seen it yet, but I found it interesting that one of the honcho's one of the teachers unions (who has been highlighted in several shows critical of teachers unions) has been on an all out publicity blitz trying to bolster up the flagging image of teachers unions. So, this film is hitting them where it hurts. I wish I could remember her name, but her face is familiar (I think she has something to do with New York schools) from many interviews where she kept quoting the party line about how great the unions were for education as she defended the rules that keep really bad teachers on the payroll (i.e. the rubber room for disciplined teachers.)

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I haven't seen it yet, but I found it interesting that one of the honcho's one of the teachers unions (who has been highlighted in several shows critical of teachers unions) has been on an all out publicity blitz trying to bolster up the flagging image of teachers unions. So, this film is hitting them where it hurts. I wish I could remember her name, but her face is familiar (I think she has something to do with New York schools) from many interviews where she kept quoting the party line about how great the unions were for education as she defended the rules that keep really bad teachers on the payroll (i.e. the rubber room for disciplined teachers.)

 

Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, is "villianized" in the film. She gave the film-makers an interview, and I know (being an editor myself) what you can do when you want to be "selectively one-sided."

 

Ms Weingarten (while definitely an advocate for teachers) has a reputation as a "reformer" and a person open to reasonable innovations. The AFT as an organization is much more pro-reform than the NEA, but she is the "villain" because she sat down for the cameras.

 

The film is "one-sided." It is an advocacy piece. It is a valuable film for having a "position" but it is not even-handed. The film-maker wanted Super-Heroes and Villians, but life is more complex than that.

 

Barely touched upon is how many of the Charter Schools (that are somehow the panacea for all that's wrong in the schools) do no better (or are even worse) than the local public school.

 

While I throughly enjoyed the film, and think debate and attention to the problems in our schools is vital, there are a number of points I take with a grain of salt.

 

Bill

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Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, is "villianized" in the film. She gave the film-makers an interview, and I know (being an editor myself) what you can do when you want to be "selectively one-sided."

 

Ms Weingarten (while definitely an advocate for teachers) has a reputation as a "reformer" and a person open to reasonable innovations. The AFT as an organization is much more pro-reform than the NEA, but she is the "villain" because she sat down for the cameras.

 

Interesting ... I have seen several documentaries on educations where she vehemently argued the standard party line of tenure, more tax money, adamently opposed to any rule changes that would get bad teachers out of classrooms, etc. So, for years, she has been portrayed as quite the opposite. Did they all get it wrong about her?

 

The film is "one-sided." It is an advocacy piece. It is a valuable film for having a "position" but it is not even-handed. The film-maker wanted Super-Heroes and Villians, but life is more complex than that.

 

Not having seen it, I can't speak to this, but knowing what I do about this director, I am not surprised.

 

While I throughly enjoyed the film, and think debate and attention to the problems in our schools is vital, there are a number of points I take with a grain of salt.

 

Bill

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Interesting ... I have seen several documentaries on educations where she vehemently argued the standard party line of tenure, more tax money, adamently opposed to any rule changes that would get bad teachers out of classrooms, etc. So, for years, she has been portrayed as quite the opposite. Did they all get it wrong about her?

 

I don't think they got it all wrong. I think they got it mostly right, but not nuanced.

 

Not having seen it, I can't speak to this, but knowing what I do about this director, I am not surprised.

 

Like An Inconvienient Truth, it is an important film on a serious topic presented as an advocacy piece from essentially one point of view.

 

Bill

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