Real time notes: Waiting for Superman

Real time notes: Waiting for Superman. “Superman is not real” no one w/ enough power coming, 1999, documentary about public schools. Idea of public school could work, don’t want to send own children to failing school, send own kids to private school, because he has a choice. For other children, they go through lottery, to decide if they can go to school or not. Boyle Heights: Girl named Daisy knows what she wants to do in life, “find different ways to make learning fun” if someone says this class is boring. Wants to be a nurse, doctor, and veterinarian. Father says she can do what she wants and believes in his daughter. Father struggles and no job, mother is the bread winner of the family. Father dropped out of school, Judith (Daisy’s mom) stopped going to school and is now working in hospital. Geoffrey Canada: Was supposed to go to South Bronx H.S. but if he attended there he would never be where he is today. 1971 education spending has increased, doubled what is spent on each child, reading scores has flat lined, math is no better. Francisco: he likes math but other students do not like math, wants to be a “recorder”. Describe the school: once you walk in, greeted by a security guard and can't go any further. Francisco attends third largest overpopulated school. Bianca (Harlem): Mom walks to pick her child up from school, her mother never envisioned having children, does not matter how many jobs or what she has to do; she wants Bianca to go to college, no question about it. America was finally going to fix education: stand up and demand, no single child left behind. George Bush: “taking tests is no fun, but too bad”. 8^th graders tested for reading proficiency, lowest in Washington D.C.= 12%. 5^th-7^th grade go from B students to D students, kids are either getting stupider every year or something is wrong with education system. Roosevelt high school, one of the worse schools in L.A. 57% of daisy’s classmates will not graduate. Will know which kids will drop out from high school. Failing elementary and middle schools send children to high schools who only last 1-2 years in H.S. Locke high school, one of the worst. Steve Barr says they lose a lot of 9^th-10^th graders every year. Millions of kids walk the street, no diplomas, no skills. Pittsburgh: Bell Strickland went to Oliver High school (drop out factory school), most of his friends are now in prison or dead.Keeping an inmate in prison is $33,000/year. Could have sent that inmate to private school from kindergarten to high school, tuition roughly $8,000/year. Anthony’s grandma takes care of him, says she cries for him and is scared for him because he could be easily influenced. Kimball elementary school go to John Suza where that is a sinking hole. Michelle Rhee, appointed acting director. Central office got pile of money that “screws everything up” This district did not end up like this on accident. No accountability. Mixed agendas, whole collection of people been an impediment to reform. Francisco’s 2^nd year at school and he has not had good luck with teachers, teachers tells his mom that he may need to repeat first grade. Mom gets upset because she wishes she could do better for her kids. Good teacher can cover 150% of curriculum per year, bad teacher 50% of curriculum. Video tapped teacher reading newspaper and putting kids head in toilet. Students with high performing teachers do better. Tenure- guaranteeing jobs for life, protecting teachers from getting fired. Public school teachers have been granted tenure automatically. Teachers had very little protection, had to organize a union. @ national level, democratic party received most money.
Should not make any distinctions b/t teachers. Teacher has to go through observation. Jason: named teacher of the year, “nothing more difficult than the life of a teacher”. 1999 documentary: teachers  devote their life to the children. Cannot pay teacher more based on performance, if they are doing good. “Teachers are great”, “teachers union is a menace”. Howard fuller, former superintendent in Milwaukee. Dance of the lemons: system that is completely dysfunctional, principal has lemons (teachers who are chronically bad and everyone knows it) Can’t fire those bad teachers and at the year they do the lemon dance, different teachers end up at different schools, school hopes to end up with a decent teacher. In New York, tenure teachers get sent to “rubber room” they still get paid to go to these “meetings” Hard to be a good teacher, takes years to become a ‘master’ teacher (Geoffrey Canada) Creating charters, schools that are not bound to any government money. By law, school must hold a lottery if it gets full. Charter school funded by the public. Geoffrey Canada, guarantees that the children attending that school will go on to college. Nakia Whitfield: went to public school, and had a physics teacher who said they would still get paid whether or not the kids learn anything. Pays $500/mo for tuition for private school for her daughter. Michelle Rhee, had to fire three principals and that sparked outrage from parents. Chancellor, D.C schools. Gave teachers 2 options, keep tenure and get moderate pay, or give up tenure and make 6 figures. Mentality that you have a right to teach. Recognize and reward effective teachers. After months of highly charged debates, thought the proposal was so threatening that they did not even allow a vote. She sees now how things are the way they are, all comes down to the adults. Francisco’s mom: takes Francisco to reading class at nearby college. Takes a 45 min subway ride to look at a charter school, Harlem Success school. Students who are behind in reading are assigned an individual tutor until they get it. 40 second graders, 800 families applying @ harlem success school. “Education could be a ticket out” The U.S in math, ranked last. Confidence rated #1. San Francisco, average home price a million dollars. Emily, 8^th grader, wants to be a teacher. Summit prep, entering lottery. 110 spaces, 500 applicants.
Bill Gates, testified before congress. Daisy parents have found one other option: Kipp LA prep, 10 spaces. Bianca couldn’t go to her ceremony at the school across the street due to owed tuition, Nakia is entering her daughter into the lottery for Harlem success school. Kipp academy in Houston, TX, highest performing school. 8,000 students in Geoffrey Canada’s school. “Lie that disadvantaged kids can’t learn”. Seed: boarding school 24 spaces, 61 applicants. Anthony wants an education and wants his kids to have a better life than he had. “Can’t have a great school without great teachers". Bianca, Daisy, Anthony, Francisco did not get accepted into their school. Emily was accepted into summit prep. “if we give up, then what is the result?” Back in the struggle, don’t give up, education is a way out. Anthony got moved up on the waitlist and was able to get enrolled into Seed. Three months later, it’s Anthony’s first day of school. Directed by: Davis Guggenheim

I think the film really opened my eyes and showed how much the U.S., as a whole, was struggling not only in math and science, but also reading. I think the U.S. needs a lot more work in improving the education system, how? I’m not sure but I think they should really look at how other countries are succeeding in areas then we should adapt some of their techniques to help improve the education system in America. So many kids get placed into schools that set them up for failure instead of setting them up for success. Part of it may be due to teachers but it also boils down to the neighborhood you live in, you get sent to the closest school near you and have no choice. I think it was pretty sad to see the kids go through a lottery to determine if they would get accepted into a charter school. It is too bad that the public schools can’t offer the same for students attending charter schools or private schools. I definitely would not want that for my children and if it ever had to come down to a lottery, I feel like I would need to move out of my neighborhood in hopes of finding a great area to raise my children and hope that they get a better education elsewhere.