Educator Geoffrey Canada was told by his mother in the 4th grade that Superman is not real. There is no omnipotent person coming to save the good people. The public education system is overcrowded and failing. Money spent on each student has doubled over time but the results have lagged behind. This movie follows several students and their struggling lower-class families across the country. The politicians keep trying including no child left behind. It is bad teachers, bad systems, and union imposed tenure. It examines dropout factories. There is Michelle Rhee, the public school Chancellor in D.C. The big baddies in this movie are definitely the unions. It does take a rather black and white position. Canada would open a charter school in poor-performing Harlem. The most compelling scene is probably families waiting with baited breathe during the lottery to get into a charter school.

Waiting for Superman begins with Geoffrey Canada telling a tale about how when he was in fourth grade he cried when his mother told him that superman did not exist. He was upset as a child, because he found out at that moment that no one could save his family from poverty. The narrator discusses how in order for children living in poverty to get a good education, they have to participate in a charter school lottery. Charter schools have less capacity for a lot of students in comparison to public schools so by law the students have to be picked by a lottery. The director Davis Guggenhiem follows children and their families in order to show that the location in which they reside in effects the type of school they go to. The documentary poses the argument that students living in poverty get the disadvantage of attending " drop out" public schools. The No Child Left Behind bill shows that students across the United States score below 40% in math even after increasing the cost spent on students to $9,000(Holden, Stephen. "Students Caught in the School Squeeze." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.). The issue of public schools is that the education system is not up to par with schools like private and charter schools. Public schools in areas of poverty are over crowded and little is expected of the students from their educational leaders. Students see that they and their fellows are not succeeding in their studies so they give up. This results in low school scores and a higher drop out rate. The documentary illustrates how if more money from the government were issued to public schools and teachers, students would benefit and thrive. Reformer Bill Strickland is interviewed and talks about how he went to a drop out school and most of his old classmates are in prison. It costs the state $33,000 per prisoner and only $8,300 to send a child to private school ("Waiting for 'Superman'"). This point bring up the issue of the government not issuing sufficient funds to public schools. If students received proper education through schooling they would not drop out and possibly end up in jail. School rankings would increase and the level of drop out students would decrease if public schools were offered the same resources that private and charter schools have. Another issue that is addressed is that bad teachers are the problem. A clip from the documentary shows students sitting in a classroom talking and playing as their teacher reads a newspaper. Students cannot benefit from a teacher that does not teach. When a teacher does not teach it is obvious that his or her students will fail their exams. Another point that is brought up by a boy's mom in the film is that teachers do not care to help those in need. Since many of the students are struggling the standards teachers give their students are low. Students are not motivated or pressured to try when their teacher does not teach or does not help those who are struggling. Teacher union leaves the board at a disadvantage, because they can not fire bad teachers. After two years teaches can receive tenure, which means that they will always be able to teach at that school. This is not only an issue for the board who cannot fire teachers, but for students year after year whom they are teaching. The same bad teacher that teaches a class one year will teach the same way for years to come which means the same school ranking and same amount of drop outs. The documentary further discusses how those who live in richer areas have many different options of where to attend schools. Those who live in poverty have fewer schools and if those schools do bad the government shuts them down. Referring back to the beginning of the documentary the narrator discusses how when it comes to his kids he drives past three public schools until he drops his kids off at a private schools. Families who are not well off do not have the option of traveling outside of their neighborhood in order to send their kids to school. Even if they could drive to a different school many families who live in poor urban areas can not afford to send their kids to private schools. Where someone grows up and the state of their family financially determines what type of education they will get. The documentary Waiting for Superman argues that the government should take action in providing better education for it's students in order to benefit not only students who live in low income areas, but also the United States as a whole. After watching this documentary one can come to the conclusion that it is unfair that children who have no control of what financial state they are in are destined to fail. Urban poverty is an issue and because of it schools are lacking in teachers and resources required for a student to succeed. Government funding should focus more on providing those with less resources more money in order to fix their public schools and become like schools in higher income areas. Instead of rewarding the rich and having those that live in a poorer income participate in random lottery's that hold the answer if they can or cannot get a better education, the government should focus on public schools in areas of poverty. By increasing the resources and creating more schools in poorer urban areas this will increase the percentage of grades across the states and truly fulfill the No Child Left Behind bill.

Davis Guggenheim, documentary filmmaker analysis the disturbing truth in which the American Public Education system harms our children because of their lack of attention and care for the children who attend public schools. He also explores the roles that education reformers and charter schools could play in offering a better and hopeful future by bettering the public school systems. In the beginning Guggenheim thought that the idea of a public school would work. In 1999 he made a documentary about teachers. He watched them dedicate their time to make public schools work. Ten years later it was his time to choose which schools his children were attending, believing and living by the ideas of public school he took his children to a private school. He was frightened to take his children to a failing school, a public school.Guggenheim states, "No matter who we are and what neighborhood we live in wanting to believe in our schools is like taking a leap of faith." He knew that his family was privileged enough to bypass the troubled, poorly performing public schools but he was concerned about all those other children who didn't have the same privilege. Guggenheim was concerned and struck by many questions he could not find the answer to: What about the children who don't have a choice? What type of education are they receiving? Where is their assurance that they would have the chance to live out their dream, to fulfill their vast potential? How worried are the children's parents when they drop off their kids at school in the morning? These questions are what made Guggenheim explore the different schooling systems and the different teaching methods that brought successful and which ones were hurting the students. We constantly see statistics about students dropping out, science and math scores falling, and schools closing due to lack of funding. What we refuse to see are the names and faces of the children whose entire futures are at stake because change isn't being made. At some point in time the American public education system was a model admired by everyone. Today other countries are surpassing us in every respect. The public schools systems were made with a purpose back in the industrial times. That purpose being that some students would graduate to become lawyers, doctors, accountants and the rest of the students who weren't as advanced as those who graduated would end up in factories. But times have changed and the schooling system needs to change as well. The slogan "No Child Left Behind" has become a cynical punch line. Bianca, Emily, Anthony, Daisy, and Francisco are five students who deserve better. By investigating how the current system is actually obstructing their education instead of bolstering it, Guggenheim opens the door to considering possible options for transformation and improvement. Though Guggenheim gives out these possible solutions to improve the education of those students who aren't as privileged as those who can afford private schooling, his solutions lack the fact that societal inequities are more powerful than any force teachers can bring to bear in schools. In his film Guggenheim mentions that maybe the neighborhoods aren't what makes the school bad, but its the schools that make the neighborhood bad. Guggenheim bashes many public school teachers in his film, but I feel that he doesn't give enough credit to them. Many public schools teachers have to be more than just a teacher, they have to deal with the problems kids have outside of school as well. He shows us five different students who are trying to get out of the public school system but all of these students have parents or guardians who care about them and their future. But what happens to all those kids who don't have someone to push them forward are they just forgotten in the public school system? Guggenheim's idea of creating more charter school and magnet school is a start but it shouldn't be the only thing that should be changed. Children should be able to attend any school in any neighborhood and receive the same education that another child is receiving in a private school. Money and poverty is a huge disadvantage for these kids when it shouldn't be. A students knowledge shouldn't be measured by how much money they have but how badly they want to succeed. Davis Guggenheim documentary Waiting for "Superman" is a good film that informs you about the differences and unfairness of the public schooling system but I don't completely agree with his solution because there is more education than just the school you attend.

I was disappointed by the one-sidedness of this movie. Without any comment from the teacher's unions, at least in the first hour the bias is palpable. I turned off the movie when I realised it was trying to blame teachers and unions for all the problems in our education system, an education system that in itself is fraudulent. As a former teacher, I know how difficult it can be to teach a classroom full of innercity kids - sometimes 35 to a class. Research shows that small class size helps with learning tremendously, and those teachers this movie is labelling 'bad' - are not being given a chance to speak. I'm sure they have valuable perspectives to add, and this movie would be more credible if it allowed those teachers to speak out.With the aim to reward 'good' teachers, what exactly do you measure what is good. A teacher should be a model of emotional intelligence, adept at peaceful conflict resolution, have excellent communication, compassion, understanding, positive enthusiasm as well as intelligence. A teacher should also care for the child's emotional well-being and whole self. It seems the producers of this movie are solely concerned with math and reading scores - which are such a superficial measurement for success in a teacher- student relationship. Unfortunately the education system has convinced the majority of parents that this is the measurement to use. The education system has been set up that way, and it is a fraud. I would like to see the teacher's unions come up with their own documentary - then let's see the OTHER side of the story.Viewers beware of this movie, but most of you won't will you, because you have bought into the system, you have allowed the programers to delude you into thinking the education system should all be about reading, writing and maths.