A new documentary is hitting theaters this fall that looks like a must-see for anyone trying to help improve the nation’s approach to education.
If the trailer is any indication, “Waiting for Superman” is a powerful look at the broken U.S. public school system through the lives of five families and with often depressing data on the system’s failings. The movie made it into the Sundance Film Festival and is already getting good reviews.
As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Davis Guggenheim (director of “An Inconvenient Truth”) undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.
However, embracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, and ultimately questioning the role of unions in maintaining the status quo, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind. “Waiting for Superman” website.
Thanks to the Erickson Institute (@earlychildhood on Twitter) for highlighting this new film.