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RandySF

(57,661 posts)
Sat Sep 20, 2014, 12:09 PM Sep 2014

Finally watched "Waiting for Superman", and here is what I come up with..

The movie gets one point right in that in larger school districts like my own, with a few really good schools, quite a few bad ones and a whole bunch in the middle. It also show the lengths many parents are willing to go to get their kids out of genuinely bad schools. However, the movie begins and ends with a large set of incorrect assumptions:

1. Every parent cares equally about their children's education.
2. Every kid is equally ready and willing to learn.
3. Kids never come to school smelling like their parents' pot (as I personally smelled on kids' clothes when my son was in kindergarden).
4. Kids never come to school hungry.
5. Every public school teacher puts in the same minimal effort.
6. Kids never come to school with bruises on their faces.

In other words, the movie assumes every teacher is working with the same blank canvas and, with the right tools and creativity, they should be able to achieve the same results.

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tech3149

(4,452 posts)
1. Their assumptions were one reason I couldn't watch it.
Sat Sep 20, 2014, 12:24 PM
Sep 2014

You know what they say when you assume. The sad thing is so many parents that are desperate to get their children a better education are emotional targets for those assumptions. After years of working in and around schools, not as an educator, I've seen all the problems affecting the quality of the education. Most of them have nothing to do with the teacher. No teacher can solve problems they have no control over.
I think I watched about 10 minutes of that dreck before I started screaming at the screen.

 

grahamhgreen

(15,741 posts)
2. My take: they keep holding ip Finland as an example; teachers there are 98.5% unionized, we should
Sat Sep 20, 2014, 12:36 PM
Sep 2014

do the same here.

 

grahamhgreen

(15,741 posts)
5. They showed that if you want good schools, do what Finland does. Instead they tried to make a case
Sat Sep 20, 2014, 01:46 PM
Sep 2014

for privatization. Made zero sense to me.

Finland is socialist.

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