“Waiting For Superman”
About the Film
Waiting for Superman is an award winning documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim. The documentary film is about the current state of the United States public school system and the realities that both families and their children are facing amidst the failing standards of the country’s education system. The film follows the educational ambition of five children in which four are studying in a public school while the other one is enrolled in a parochial school. All of the five children share the same dream of going to college. However, that goal is far from being realized as they all struggle to get into charter schools because they cannot afford private schools and the quality of education public system is failing.
The Documentary
The reason for choosing this documentary is to explore and share the truth about education and the implication of its failures to the young hopefuls. At first, the expectation about the film is that it will talk about heroic fictional character and his influences to the children. However, that expectation was changed as soon as I went through the first five minutes of the film. As I went through the rest of the film, my expectations shifts from the context of fiction into an absolute reality and I expected to learn how even the small children are affected by the mere absence of adequate and sustainable public school system in the U.S.
Waiting for Superman generally centers on the seriousness of the current public education system in the United States, that the idea of public schools could work. However, the feeling of sending a children into a public school does not matter anymore because it is the fear of sending them into a failing school. It is apparent that the filmmaker’s goal is to open the eyes of the audience that not all families have a choice when it comes to choosing the best school for their children, while other pin their hopes to a bouncing ball.
The filmmaker supported his ideas in the film by means of presenting real facts, interviewing actual people who are experiencing the problems described by his thesis. When it comes to the proving that the public school system is failing, Davis interviewed key individuals such as Bill Gates, Geoffrey Canada the founder of Harlem Success network of schools. Davis also interviewed Michelle Rhee, who was appointed as Chancellor of schools in Washington D.C. Both of the interviewed people presented their analysis pertaining to the public school situation including statistical data demonstrating the failing marks of public schools all over the country. For example, when 8th graders were tested for reading proficiency only a small percentage of public schools were able to pass and the worst score of 12% proficiency was in Washington D.C., the nation’s capitol. This is also the reason that Michelle Rhee was appointed to turn the situation around.
The film has surpassed my expectations of a documentary piece. A usual film documentary work presents itself in a manner that most people see as a plain in-depth report of a current issue. However, Waiting for Superman have incorporated the technical requirements of a documentary and at the same time presented itself in a cinematic proportion. There are several things that I have learned from the documentary; one is that most people see the country as on top of everything in the world. However, the film made me realized that while the United States is at its peak of global leadership, its place in the ranks of countries with good public education system is only at the 34th.
The film made me realize that there are lots of children in the country that are struggling to reach their hope of a better education, but facing adversities due to economic factors. It is pity that the kids are the ones that has to suffer the consequences of the adults and that inspired me as person to appreciate the fact that I am able to get into college while others are struggling to even get a chance to get into a good school because they could not even afford a charter school, let alone private.
The filmmaker was able to deliver a smooth flow of the scenes in such a manner that the audience could easily understand and follow the point of the documentary. For example, archive footages of Superman were used to illustrate how Geoffrey Canada remembers the superhero in his younger days and how his hopes for someone to save the good people relate to the fictional hero. In addition, the filmmaker also made use of texts in the documentary that is both simple yet effective. For example, the documentary generally shows how less fortunate families pin their hopes to lotteries in charter school to get a slot. As the lottery goes on, the scenes also show the numbers of slots available and seeing it doing down to zero while looking at the face of the parent depicts hope as it slowly fades away.
