Crisis of Education in the United States
Today’s public school program in the United States is facing major cultural and structural obstacles with the education system. Children continue to struggle to achieve academically and be successfully motivated. Davis Guggenheim produced a documentary film displaying this struggle and his main goal of the film was to start having parents care about other people’s children as much as they care about their own. In this interview many ideas and critics arise pertaining to the school system, Charter schools, and successful teachers.
The interview with Katie Couric and Davis Guggenheim brought many surprises and disappointments to critics concerning his film “Waiting for Superman”. Guggenheim makes a strong statement pertaining to most of the population in public schools is the middle class. Guggenheim quotes, “The idea of America is that everyone has a chance”, which suggest that every child has the opportunity to succeed in school if they are given the proper necessities (YouTube.com Interview). He argues that not all public schools are bad, but in his film, he shows his audience what a typical bad school performs and how it needs to improve. For the past 20-30 years, the public school system portrays a two-class society. This system is known as the “Tracking System”, by which the system puts the child into an upper track course or a lower track course (YouTube.com Interview). This simply means that being on the upper track entitles the student with the best teachers and all the resources that needed to succeed. Those left in the lower track are given the minimum education and provided the basic requirements to graduate. Schools are built for every child, who “masks mediocre schooling for the bottom 75%” (YouTube.com Interview). Those children that excel in school especially, get placed in these extravagant schools based on their characteristic traits, test scores, strong relationship with teachers.
Research has shown a lack of proficiency in math and reading scores in public schools and it continues to show no improvement. Since the 50s, more than 40% of students do not graduate with a high school diploma (YouTube.com Interview). This could be due to the low poverty rate and the lack of efficient parenting skills. Guggenheim clarifies that not every parent is equipped to provide their children the tools to be successful in today’s society. Those parents who are unable to teach their children the skills to be successful were either incapable of doing so because they were not taught it in their childhood. Therefore, they are unfitted in helping their child if they did not receive those skills in the past generations. Guggenheim states that “schools are the ticket to success”, and our society need to come together to give every child the opportunity to do so (YouTube.com Interview). In order to reverse the effect of lack of aspiration of parents is to create better schools for their children to teach the students the essential tools to be successful.
Guggenheim brings up the idea that Charter schools are another great opportunity for students to take advantage of public schools that do not satisfy their needs. Charter schools were the “experiment” which gave students the freedom what they wanted to do (YouTube.com Interview). These schools can educate those who are illiterate and 90% will be more successful (YouTube.com Interview). Statistics show that one out of every five Charter schools is doing better than others. Guggenheim explains, “Charters are the incubators for those great ideas, and bring those ideas over to the district schools” and that these ideas are spreading (YouTube.com Interview). Guggenheim supports the ideas of Charter schools and believes that they bring success to children. He describes the elements to success is having great teachers, longer and more school days, high expectations and goals to reach, and lastly accountability to help the students be successful. A significant problem public schools face is dealing with terminating failing teachers.
Guggenheim makes a clear statement that those teachers who are not sufficient in teaching and do not have the skills to be a motivating leader should be terminated. The process of terminating a teacher is long and aggravating to some principles, especially when those teachers have tenure. Guggenheim also suggests that there needs to be an improvement in respect towards teachers. Teachers are professional people in their specific field and should be respected just like any other job description. Guggenheim recommends that teachers should go through a strict process of evaluation when being hired as a teacher. He also believes that unions need to continue to protect teacher’s rights and maintain flexibility.
Katie Couric and Davis Guggenheim then had another conversation with three individuals via Skype discussing their opinions about the film “Waiting for Superman”. The interviewed conversation was with Barbra, middle school principle, which thought that the film was not a “true portrayal” of the schools (YouTube.com Interview). She would have liked to see more successful families in the film, so it was not all focused on the negativity of public schools. Barbara wishes that social services would help the children more so that school system can be up to par in getting the proper education. Guggenheim then commented on Barbra’s critics by adding; when someone donates a certain amount of money to a broken school system, the money does not directly go straight to the principle to decide where to utilize it. Instead it has to go through a centralized bureaucracy, which then handles the donated money and determines how much and what the principle can do with it. There are parameters in which the money can be spent and where it can go for improvement. Barbra felt that the principles should be able to decide where the donated money should go because they are the ones who personal know how to improve their student’s academic environment. She argues that the board restricts the opportunities to help the students succeed in school because they are not physically working with the students and do nott know their personal needs.
The second interview was with Eric who was concerned with the film not providing the guidance to new steps to success for the future of student’s education. Guggenheim suggested those who do not get into Charter schools, they are destined for failure. Therefore, children should either go to a public school or a Charter regardless because if they do not thrive for an education, it would allow them to hold a stable job in their future. Erin argues that many people view Charter schools as a “parallel system” which is siphoning public attention (YouTube.com Interview). Erin states that teachers are essential to student’s future to success. Without teachers, people would not be able to learn anything or build the knowledge to be successful employees. Davis agrees with Erin and reassures him that today’s society has shattered the status quo to improve public education system. Most people forget about the public schools and just pull their children out and place them into private thinking that it is best for their child. Our society is focused at putting more money and effort into the private schools, rather than thinking about improving the public schools that are struggling.
The last interview was with a gentleman named Dino, and he believed that paying teachers more would improve the school system. If teachers knew that they would be getting paid well, they would be more motivated to provide students with a proper and more professional education. Until more money is put into the system and the compensation is higher across the board, then we will see more improvement in the success rate of students educational system.
This film was portrayed to be controversial. It lacks a “call to action” to improve the future education for the children. The website Guggenheim promotes, shows steps in order to help a school improve and be successful. The purpose of the movie was to get people to care again about the school system and get them involved. The documentary was produced to continue conversation and to help others get engaged and change the public school education system.
Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8jepdjqZIA. @katiecouric: “Waiting for 'Superman”.
Uploaded by KatieCouric on Oct 27, 2010. Date accessed the clip on April 4, 2011.
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