*** out of ****
Directed by: Davis Guggenheim
Running time: 110 minutes
If I were to mark this hot-topic doc from Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), it would get a solid B. The film, an analysis of the problems and pitfalls that plague the American public school system, is insightful, engaging, and at times, deeply disturbing.
In the film’s funniest moment, Guggenheim reveals that American students rank last in math and science skills. When asked to rank their skills, however, these students put themselves ahead of 30 other developed countries.
So, why are these children lagging so far behind? Guggenheim points out that it has to do with the teachers and the powerful unions that protect them. Once a union teacher is granted tenure just a few years into their career, they are ensured of keeping this position for life. And, chances are, with this near guarantee of job security (the firing process for an educator is so lengthy and difficult to justify on the school’s part that it rarely ever happens), these teachers simply stay put.
In a cheeky animated sequence, Guggenheim introduces the “dance of the lemons.” When a teacher at an upper-level school doesn’t meet its expectations, they are not fired; rather, they are waltzed out and employed at a lower-tier school. It’s as if one school takes out the trash and the slightly worse one picks it up and rummages through it – which can explain why schools in poorer areas have the majority of their students struggling to reach their expected grade level.
Education reform’s not the easiest thing to push for, either. Take Michelle Rhee, a public school chancellor for Washington D.C. who fired dozens of principals and hundreds of underperforming teachers while pushing merit pay for higher-quality instructors. Her reasons may have been justified, but the unions were disgusted by these “radical” reforms.
In the last shot of Rhee, she looks at the Capitol Building in her rearview mirror, and (in voice-over) mentions how so much drama in the system revolves around the adults, that it’s easy to forget about the children suffering from the crippled state of the education.
Thankfully, ‘Superman’ doesn’t forget about the little guys. Throughout the film, Guggenheim follows the path of five children and their families – from many ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. Each of them decides to enter an American charter school, a learning-intensive facility with highly qualified, better paid instructors.
Unfortunately, thousands of families await a stop in these chapels of education, and the centres can only accept a select few. The positions are chosen by a lottery – the ones the families featured in the documentary will partake in at the film’s end. Those who make it into these schools are heavily favoured to make it into college. Those who don’t will be scrambling to make ends meet, since the alarming high school dropout rate in the United States is unlikely to subside.
When the future of your child is predicated by mere luck, you’ve got a system that’s out of control.
Guggenheim tackles a lot of issues in just under two hours; unfortunately, the film doesn’t cover some essential points and that is its kryptonite. It’s not just the teachers and the unions who forecast trouble for schoolchildren. Other factors, from the home life and the parents’ involvement in their children to problems with the curriculum to the lack of motivation most kids have to succeed at school, are key detriments to many students across the United States.
The reason that hundreds of thousands of students drop out of school each year is not entirely the teacher’s fault, folks. In fact, a good teacher is the real ‘Superman’ many American schoolchildren and their families are waiting for. But even though Guggenheim’s documentary is not as comprehensive as one would expect for such a sprawling issue, it is certainly a gripping, galvanizing, important film.
[Note: Michelle Rhee, a key figure in the film who was mentioned in the review, just resigned this past week from her post as schools chancellor in Washington D.C.]
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