School for scandal

'Waiting for Superman' looks for answers about our educational system

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“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”former President George W. Bush memorably mused a decade ago. That’s exactlywhat director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “It Might Get Loud”)asks in “Waiting for Superman,” a film that ultimately raises more questionsthan it answers.

That’s not a bad thing at all. Even if you object toGuggenheim’s findings or what he leaves in or leaves out, “Waiting” is a greatconversation-starter about a topic we should all be discussing. In the wake ofthe much-ridiculed, much-vilified “No Child Left Behind” program, Guggenheimsees a system in which plenty of children are not only left behind, they’releft in the dust.

The film gets its title from a scene lifted from the 1950s“Superman” TV series, in which a school bus that’s about to plunge into aravine is seized by Superman, who arrives in the nick of time and saves theterrified kids by carrying the vehicle to safety.

If there’s an all-powerful hero about to swoop down andrescue millions of American students from an equally dismal fate, Guggenheimdoesn’t see that savior on the horizon. What he does see is an educationalsystem in which too many administrators fret over standardized test scores andpay little attention to what’s actually going on in classrooms.

The movie savessome of its sharpest jabs for the American Federation of Teachers, which itsees as an organization dedicated to protecting tenured teachers, even if theyare mediocre, uncaring or downright lazy. In an animated segment that’s bothfunny and infuriating at the same time, Guggenheim illustrates how the power ofthe union ensures that inadequate educators are simply shuttled around theirdistricts from school to school instead of being replaced (the procedure isalternately known as “the dance of the lemons,” “pass the trash” or “the turkeytrot”). In clips from her speeches, AFT president Randi Weingarten comes acrossas shrill and uncompromising; she’s a perhaps too-convenient walking target forGuggenheim’s scorn.

Some of the film’s most unsettling moments are provided bythe scary statistics about urban high schools, many of which have beennicknamed “dropout factories.” These are the dire destinations awaiting kidslike Daisy, a 10-year-old in Los Angeles, whose eyes sparkle when she talks ofone day becoming a nurse or a veterinarian.

If she winds up staying in her own neighborhood, however,Daisy’s chances of fulfilling her dreams are laughably low, and her mom and dadknow it. So they, like several of the other families Guggenheim profiles, areentering their child in a lottery, hoping to secure a spot in a charter schoolor a private academy. (If the movie is unduly harsh on the teachers’ union, itshines the golden light a bit brightly on charter schools, which don’t have anunblemished record of success when it comes to producing college candidates.)

When “Waiting” turns its gaze on the children, their parentsand their hopes, we get one outstanding, astounding scene after another. It’sgut-wrenching to see Nakia, a hard-working mom in Harlem, realize she can nolonger afford to send her 6-year-old daughter, Bianca, to the Catholic schoolacross the street. Guggenheim’s camera catches Nakia and Bianca staringforlornly at the building as Bianca’s class gets ready for kindergartengraduation exercises; because of unpaid tuition bills, Bianca is not allowed toparticipate, a situation that leaves her baffled and her mother emotionallydevastated.

Just as heartbreaking is the story of Anthony, afifth-grader in Washington, D.C., who is being raised by his grandmother:Anthony’s father died a few years earlier from a drug overdose and his motheris MIA. Like Daisy, he has ambitions and obstacles, and his future may dependlargely on whether or not his number is called in a drawing to fill a handfulof spaces at Seed School, a public charter academy with a great reputation.

Guggenheim isn’t merely looking to place blame and turn onthe tears, however. “Waiting” also profiles a few people who have fought toimprove the educational landscape, most notably Geoffrey Canada, thecharismatic, strong-willed founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, and MichelleRhee, the controversial chancellor of Washington, D.C.’s public schools (sheresigned from her position last week). Rhee’s hardline — some would sayheartless — approach to reform included firing underperforming teachers andawarding bonuses to educators who produce results, two tactics that made herthe archenemy of the AFT. Canada is no less determined to overhaul hiscommunity’s schools, although he tends to take a less controversial stance:With the support of Harlem residents and millions of dollars in privatedonations, he has set up an all-inclusive program to prepare urban kids forcollege, a process that begins in pre-school.

Curiously, “Waiting” doesn’t spend much time talking toteachers, even though there’s a strong sense that the success or failure of astudent is tied to the skills and dedication of the people who teach (or don’tteach) them.

Nor does the movie ever truly address the importance ofparental involvement in a child’s education. Yes, Daisy, Anthony and Biancahave strong, concerned people looking out for their interests, but are thesecases the rule or the exception? Spend time with veteran teachers who’ve workedin any school district — urban, suburban, rural, upscale, impoverished,middle-class, etc. — and you’re likely to hear hair-curling horror storiesabout mothers and fathers who simply don’t pay attention to their child’sneeds, either because the parents are overworked, self-involved, dealing withsubstance abuse problems or just plain lazy. Teachers can’t be expected tosucceed in pushing students to achieve if Dad doesn’t make sure homework getsdone or if Mom is too drunk to help her son study for a math quiz.

At the same time, this is a predicament that’sextraordinarily tricky to document on film: How many parents do you know who’d bewilling to be showcased as the guy who forgot to take his kids to schoolbecause he had a golf game, or the mom who skipped the parent-teacherconference because it was the same night as a really good episode of “TheBachelor”? Even in a country in which plenty of people are willing, even eager,to trade their self-respect for a taste of reality-TV stardom, no one wants tobe seen as the monster who short-changed their kids.

“Waiting” is by no means a comprehensive picture ofeducation in America, but it raises several startling and provocative points.It’s a film that’s sure to provoke many discussions — and, hopefully, somechanges as well.

"Waiting for Superman" opens Friday exclusively at NCG Eastwood Cinemas

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