Waiting for Kryptonite. Education blogger gathers reviews of Waiting for Superman.

[madfloridian]

Waiting for Superman is a documentary that is a pro-charter school dream.

The NYC Public School Parents blog has this about the film.

Guggenheim has cherry-picked and packaged every hoary scare story from the last twenty-five years: the lazy and incompetent teacher, the reactionary and obstructionist union as represented by "villainess" Randi Weingarten (of whom one commentator notes that the movie "makes something of a foaming satanic beast"), the Democratic Party supported by those teacher unions, the lack of incentive rewards for "good" teachers, and not enough charter schools.

Sound familiar? Sound like a documentary, or an advocacy piece? Still not sure? Well then, go back to the top of this posting and check out the "Terminator"-like nuclear-bomb-blast scene surrounding the little blonde, white girl in the movie's advertising poster. Anyone but me reminded of LBJ's infamous, anti-Goldwater nuclear holocaust campaign ad, the one that was shown on TV exactly one time and pretty much decided the election?

Here is more from their site:

And who are the stars of Guggenheim's film? None other than NYC's own Geoffrey Canada, supported by Michelle Rhee and KIPP founders David Levin and Mike Feinberg, backed by a song written and performed just for this movie by John Legend.

So where is the Superman who can save our little blond children from these incompetent teachers and their devil's-spawn unions? Where's Clark Kent when we need him? Never fear, that bespectacled, geeky guy is here, only this Superman's street-clothes identity is Bill Gates.

Education blogger Fred Klonsky gathered together some reviews of the documentary in one paragraph form.

Waiting for Kryptonite

The New Yorker’s Nicholas Lemann writes about the neatly packaged crisis in the faux doc Waiting for Superman.

It should raise questions when an enormous, complicated realm of life takes on the characteristics of a stock drama. In the current school-reform story, there is a reliable villain, in the form of the teachers’ unions, and a familiar set of heroes, including Geoffrey Canada, of Harlem Children’s Zone; Wendy Kopp, of Teach for America, the Knowledge Is Power Program; and Michele Rhee, the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. And there is a clear answer to the problem—charter schools. The details of this story are accurate, but they are fitted together too neatly and are made to imply too much.

And there is Waiting for Krytonite, Review #2

Rick Ayers is a professor of education at the University of San Francisco. He reviews the faux doc Waiting for Superman on Huffington Post.

Waiting for Superman accepts a theory of learning that is embarrassing in its stupidity. In one of its many little cartoon segments, it purports to show how kids learn. The top of a child’s head is cut open and a jumble of factoids is poured in. Ouch! Oh, and then the evil teacher union and regulations stop this productive pouring project. The film-makers betray no understanding of how people actually learn, the active and agentive participation of students in the learning process. They ignore the social construction of knowledge, the difference between deep learning and rote memorization. The film unquestioningly bows down to standardized tests as the measure of student knowledge, school success.

And then there is the 3rd review posted.

Waiting for Kryptonite III

Dan Brown at Huffington Post reviews the faux doc Waiting for Superman.

Since when does anyone care about finding another job for departing teachers? Geoffrey Canada said at the screening, “I don’t care if you counsel them out, ice cream them out, whatever. Just get them out.” The unions need to give a little here on expediting due process for firing bad teachers. But due process is a crucial protection for teachers against hostile or unfair administrators who populate many schools. And what does “trying everything” mean? What kind of supports does Guggenheim propose for struggling teachers? It’s too easy to read this as code for: “Eviscerate the unions. They’re in the way of cleaning house.” (Imagine Michelle Rhee with her broom and scowl on the cover of Time Magazine.)

The website is up to the 7th review now.

Valerie Strauss at the WP reminds us of all the power that was present at the premiere of Waiting for Superman.

According to Politico’s Mike Allen, these were some of the people spotted on the red carpet:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), David Axelrod, Roland Martin, Michelle Rhee, Davis Guggenheim and Elisabeth Shue, Jeff Skoll, Jim Berk, Kristin Gore, Melody Barnes, Bill Sessions, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Alma Powell, Savannah Guthrie, Jake Tapper, Ed Henry, Luke Russert, Chris Matthews, Mark Halperin, Guy Cecil, Rep. Mazie Hirono, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Daniella Gibbs Leger, Dag Vega, Heather Higginbottom, Rob Nabors, Christine Varney, Julianna Smoot, Ebs Burnough, Raj Shah, Geoff Garin and Juleanna Glover.

And she further points out that the audience made up of such dignitaries gave Michelle Rhee a big applause when she attacked the DC voters who had voted out the mayor who appointed her.

It's hard to educate the kids in the classroom while teachers and parents have to listen to talk like this...that the supermen coming to save them are the billionaire foundations and charter schools management groups.

How can students respect their teachers when the leaders of this administration do not?

Someone yesterday mentioned in a thread how this assault on public education is as heartbreaking to see as the lead-up to the Iraq invasion was in 2002 and 2003.

And we are equally helpless against it because the major media are on board with the "reformers", and so is the Democratic administration.

[xchrom]

1. Ms Rhee got the spanking she deserved from dc voters.

Now some body FIRE her LYING ass.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k & r

[AlecBGreen]

5. fyi

your pic of "Arrrr!"ne Duncan is so embedded in my brain that any time I see him in the news I think "WALK THE PLANK!"

Thanks a lot!

[Starry Messenger]

7. Why, you're welcome!

I'm happy to hear that. :D

[madfloridian]

8. lol me too,

I love that pic.

:hi:

[Overseas]

3. K&R! //nt

[ibegurpard]

4. k&r

[Gabi Hayes]

6. sure hope Al Franken wasn't one of those jackwads cheering Rhee.

this is all very discouraging

[LWolf]

9. That picture is highly disturbing,

and this "documentary" is despicable.

[madfloridian]

11. Yes, the picture is disturbing.

The "reformers" are really hyping things up too much.

[LWolf]

16. It seems to me like they've gained momentum, and are

determined to crush any obstacles in their path. No mercy.

[madfloridian]

21. They are ruthless, and yes, they have gained momentum.

They have been enabled by the attitude of this administration toward teachers.

[LWolf]

24. And that is the worst travesty of all. nt

[Norrin Radd]

10. kr

[ProudDad]

12. And the tea-baggers will eat this shit up... (n/t)

[chervilant]

13. So,

having read through the first few pages of comments on Oprah's site, I have to wonder if she and her sycophants will have an epiphany after they see that the overwhelming majority of those who posted disagreed with this misleading pseudo-documentary and her panel.

[Hannah Bell]

14. they have money, they never have epiphanies.

[madfloridian]

18. Those comments are only teachers and parents....they don't count.

Bottom line.

So it does not matter what they say.

As Eli Broad said...the stars were aligned when Obama appointed Arne Duncan.

They have carte blanche to destroy the public school system and make teachers look bad.

And the saddest part of all is that DUers have convinced themselves it is good to privatize education and turn it over the the Bill Gates of the world.....because Obama is doing it.

Teachers were never insulted like this during Bush's administration in spite of Paige and Spelling.

I am most disillusioned and sad.

[msanthrope]

15. Didn't we like this guy when he made "An Inconvenient Truth?"

Oh, yeah....

Now when he tells us something we don't like to hear, we aren't supposed to like him any more?????

Also, here's what I don't get---posters on this board, on this VERY THREAD---have denounced Randi Weingarten ad nauseam....

So does Guggenheim in this movie. Why isn't that okay?

A really good review from David Edelstein---(and it's a great movie, go see it!)


"Old Greed, New Greed

What could be more awkward for a political progressive—Davis Guggenheim, who made An Inconvenient Truth—than to open a documentary with the admission that he betrays his ideals every morning, when he drives past his local school in the Washington, D.C., area and drops off his children at a private institution? What could be riskier to his country’s political future (as he sees it) than to conclude that the villain of his story is a union, the American Federation of Teachers, that also happens to be one of the Democratic Party’s most generous sources of contributions? Waiting for “Superman” has a measured tempo and a humanistic spirit, but you can feel the director’s struggle to keep it evenhanded. I especially felt it because my own response was unmeasured: This is one of the most galvanizing documentaries I’ve ever seen.

SNIP

But this is not a movie about presidents, and every statistic—there are many—connects with the story of a child: brooding Anthony in D.C., darlingly open Daisy in L.A., sweet-tempered Bianca in Harlem, and others. They want to go to school, but the schools to which they’re headed are the ones where maybe three of every 100 kids will graduate with the minimum requirements for college. They have parents who work desperately to get them a decent education, but their dreams of going to a magnet or charter school rest on balls or slips of paper pulled at random, on crap shoots with dismaying odds.


Here are some of the revelations in Waiting for “Superman.” Failing schools can’t always be blamed on failing neighborhoods; failing neighborhoods can be blamed on failing schools. The U.S. ranks 25th out of 30 developed countries in math proficiency, but first in how proficient its citizens think they are. And here’s the most amazing statistic: Under the AFT contract, only one in 2,500 U.S. teachers with tenure (typically granted after two years) will lose his or her job, and the cost and time to fire him or her will be staggering.


Guggenheim does point out that the union has protected the underpaid and overworked, and unlike Madeleine Sackler in her recent film, The Lottery, about the battle over charter schools, he doesn’t float accusations of corruption. But Guggenheim arrives at the same place. Every time an administrator like D.C.’s Michelle Rhee or Pittsburgh’s Bill Strickland comes along with a plan to weed out the miserable teachers, there she is, AFT president Randi Weingarten, telling the media that her critics are all self-serving. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lex Luthor.

SNIP

http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/68372/index1.html

[MadHound]

17. And everytime plans for reform come up, they always involve further destruction of teacher's unions

And the demonization of teachers themselves.

Let me ask you something, do teachers control a school district's revenues? How much money is taken in, how much is spent and what it is spent on? No. Yet the issue of money is at the core of our education failure. You need money to attract good teachers, you need money to provide adequate facilities, you need money to keep schools properly maintained, you need money to fund various programs that help at risk students, YOU NEED MONEY, PERIOD.

Yet, for all our bluster about how education is job one, we have always tried to do education on the cheap. When it comes to where the rubber meets the road, taxpayers have consistently refused to provide the tax revenue needed to have fully funded schools and provide salaries that would attract the best and brightest to an education career. For decades we were able to circumvent this problem because education had a captive workforce. Up until the '70's, women were relegated to just a handful of careers, and teaching was one of the most intellectually stimulating careers for them, not to mention it was one of those that allowed women the most control. That all changed, and of course women drifted out of the education field looking for higher paying jobs.

If you want the best and brightest people to become teachers, you've got to pay them for it. This is one lesson that the countries who provide the best education in the world have learned. In Japan and Finland teachers are granted the same respect in society, and the same scale of pay, as doctors are in this country. Yet our country simply doesn't want to pay for the best and brightest, doesn't want to fully fund schools and desperately needed programs for at risk youth.

Instead, decade after decade, there comes along some shortcut form of reform. The pattern is the same, blame the teacher, blame the unions, try to get better results for less money and using fewer resources, and play political games using teachers, students and education as the kickball. It simply doesn't work.

Until we bite the bullet and start fully funding education, there is nothing, NOTHING that can be done to help students in this country and boost our education system to the top. It is that simple, it has always been that simple. But politicians and the public don't want to spend that money on education. Instead, they would rather blow it on wars, tax cuts and other such stupidity.

You want a great school system, you've got to pay for it, it's that simple.

[JackRiddler]

19. Bravo. Money for schools, reduce class size, stop attacking teachers - hire more at better pay

It's all too common sense when the Alice in Wonderland logic of the rich who want to privatize the state dominates.

[madfloridian]

20. This country has been denigrating teachers so long there is little hope now.

They have insulted and belittled teachers so long that the job is almost done.

It is taking a Democratic president to finish the job.

It makes me very bitter.

[chervilant]

23. Please

Please, madfloridian, please don't give up! You are one of the most important advocates for teachers and for public education! We need your voice!

I know it's hard. As I struggle to remain solvent during my pursuit of certification, I have struggled most with anger and despondency, so I DO know it's easy to feel bitter and resigned in the face of relentless assaults from naysayers. I suspect that, like me, you've pulled back from the edge of that abyss many times already.

But, please, please don't give up.

[dkf]

26. This didn't used to be the case when we led the world in education.

Teacher's reputations have slipped with our comparative advantage over the rest of the world. Teachers and students in other countries are showing us up.

[dkf]

25. Teachers don't want $100 million from the Facebook guy.

They rather have the status quo.

[chervilant]

28. Ah, yes,

yet another individual who thinks they know what teachers want...

[chervilant]

22. Sigh...

Let's see, I liked Stephen King's 'The Green Mile;' 'Christine,' not so much... Oopsies, did I mess up chronologically in my attempt to mock your opening salvo?! (BUT, does my sarcasm in any way motivate you to consider how irrelevant is your assertion?!)

Moving beyond your insupportable contention that Guggenheim's previous work mandates that we 'like' his pseudo-documentary, I strongly encourage you to consider the agenda that has motivated this piece of propaganda. In considering the agenda, please try not to confuse awareness of said agenda with any alleged blanket denial that there are serious problems threatening our system of public education, no matter how seductive it feels to stand on your moral high ground.

Also, blaming and shaming Weingarten, Rhee, Gates, OR Guggenheim will NOT move us closer to rescuing public education and propelling it firmly into the 21st century. Likewise, blaming 'bad teachers' and 'villainous unions' for the sad state of public education--a strategy that is both simplistic and misleading--will NOT save our seriously imperiled system of education.

Our nation has routinely underfunded and disrespected public education, a reality that is manifestly apparent when one considers the fact that fully 40% of our adult population is functionally illiterate. Over the past four decades, this nation's teachers have struggled to educate our children in the face of underfunding (I cannot tell you how many hundreds of pencils, protractors and reams of paper I've supplied to my students out-of-pocket), bad administrators (like one principal I had who publicly berated an eighth grader for doing his history project on Ray Kroc and the McDonald's corporation--because "what does McDonald's have to do with history?"!), overcrowded classrooms (we've seen historically that too many students in a classroom doesn't work at all), standardized testing (research routinely illustrates NO correlation between academic skills and 'high' test scores), disintegrating school buildings (yes, I grant you, children can learn they have to go two halls down and to the left to find a functioning bathroom), and this list could go on and on (bad food, no physical education, no art, no music, etc., ad nauseum). Are there bad teachers? Yes. Are THEY the reason our schools are failing? NO!

I haven't even touched on public education's elephant in our collective living room: POVERTY. For many of our students, school represents the one environment within which they will get fed, nurtured, and encouraged. And, after YOU have to conference with a child who routinely sleeps in your classroom--discovering that he is up past two in the morning working as a busboy to help his mom provide for four younger siblings, up for another hour doing his homework, up by 5:30 to help Mom get the kids ready for school--tell me you wouldn't set aside 20 minutes of your class period so that young man could have a power nap and be alert enough to absorb the material you're covering?

I suggest you explore the reams of data already extant and offer your rebuttals from an informed perspective. Otherwise, you join the growing number of easily influenced, intellectually challenged individuals eagerly lapping up the red herrings du jour about public education.

BTW, I AM a teacher and I am PROUD to be a teacher. I will continue to TEACH my precious, bright, funny and amazing students DESPITE yet another misguided, politically-driven effort by non-educators to 'fix' public education. Because, misanthrope (just like you, I'd wager), I don't expect to see anything meaningful come out of this reform du jour.

[Catshrink]

27. Oh yeah because the only fucking problem with education is bad teachers.

Just stuff it.