Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman was a good film to watch. The film speaks of the failures of public education by following several students through the educational system. These students have also applied at near by charter schools; hoping to be selected in the lottery of the charter school in which they applied for.

The narrator, in the beginning of the documentary talks about how he fears sending his kids to a failing public school and he says he's lucky; he can send his kids to a private school. He says he is lucky to have that choice and not everybody has a choice.

It's hard not to feel for the children as you follow them throughout the movie. They want to succeed and these children have big hopes and dreams. They want to be a doctor, a teacher, etc; however, the schools which they are going to are not rated as very good and the kids know this and want to get a better education if possible - which is why they applied to the charter school and unfortunately not all of the children won the lottery for the charter school which they applied to.

A few things that struck me during the film..

 NCLB:  The No Child Left Behind Act -  it measures every child in the country and there are still 4 years left to be 100% proficient - as a country, we are not even close.

5th - 7th grade minority children are going from B - D students (not sure where or what percentage), the statistic shocked me, though.

The cost of Prison vs Private Schools. It costs more for someone to live in prison than it does for someone to go to a private school.

Michelle Rhee.. She is the chancellor for the Washington D.C. public schools. She has some wonderful ideas and many individuals don't see eye to eye with her and because of this not much can be changed unless people are supporting her ideas and want to change as well.

The film showed what flaws there are in the United States educational system and that much needs to be changed. One can only hope that in time we can change the way the educational system is for the better.