week 4 - assignment

Waiting for Superman is a 2010 documentary film talks about the American public education system by following several students who strive to be accepted into a charter school. Originally, I am curious about the film’s title. It talks about the education, but why is called “ waiting for superman”? After I watch it, I get to understand, and it shocked me. The title is based on Geoffrey Canada’s childhood dream that one day the hero Superman would come to the South Bronx and fix all that was wrong. Until one day, his mother told him the Superman was no real. Geoffrey cried because he felt all lost. And he understood there is no one could save the people in the South Bronx. I will describe in details what I learn in the following paragraphs.

Firstly, the film records the life of five children and their parents. Anthony, who lives in Washington, D.C., is one of 64 students competing for 24 beds in the Seed School, a public charter resident facility; Daisy, who lives in Los Angels, is one of 135 students competing for 10 openings in the KIP LA college charter school; Bianca and Francisco, who live in the Bronx, New York, are applied to the Harlem Success Academy; Emily, who lives in Redwood City, CA, has problem with math and would like to attend the Summit School. All children participate in the lottery because it will decide their future. Their parents firmly believe that there is a big difference between learning in the chapter school and the public school for the youth. While according to the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University reported in 2013, 56% of the charter schools showed no significant difference, and 19% have weaker learning gains than public schools Especially In mathematics, 40 % of the chapter schools were not significantly different and 31%were significantly weaker.

Secondly, there are two important people in the film. One is the reformer Michele Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. Who publicly against some behaviors that come from the teacher union of Washington, D.C. Also, she closed schools, dismissed educators and principals. One important revolution she made offers teachers who were willing to give up permanent contract would get twice annual merit-based salaries. In the film, she believed the education problems resulted from the corrupt bureaucracy. Her merit-based salary system got through by the Washington Teacher’s Union. While Rhee was force to resign in 2010. Another is the educator, Geoffrey Canada who graduated from Harvard University, and after graduated, he returned to Harlem to be a teacher. He helped build the Harlem Children’ Zone. It serves more than 10000 youth and nearly 10000 adults in 97 blocks. In the TED talks, he proposed that America has to innovate, even though the meet failure, we should not stop pushing the education forward.

In this film, I get to know many presidents claimed that they would change the status of education, and sadly, it became more worse; The Teacher Union defended permanent contract which protects teachers’ right; The American public school system has declined in the last 50 years, and United States has the worse math and science test scores.

There is no doubt that American education urgently needs reform. In 2015, the international math and science assessments released data shows that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many advanced industrial nations. Also, the PISA results in 2015 showed that the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science among the 35 members of the organization for economic cooperation and development. America education faces challenges. A series of lows, standards, corrupt bureaucracy and even the attitude of complacency will impede reform. While, comparing to the status of education in China, even though Chinese has the higher scores, the examination-oriented makes students become a test tool, and obliterate their creativity.

Finally, I accept the Michele Rhee ‘s merit-based salary system, agree with that national education depends on good teachers, and I against teachers in the public school have a permanent contract. Merit-based salary let teachers recognize their performance on teaching. It means that remove low-performing educators and promote high-performing teachers. Also, this is useful for rewarding teachers who always hard working and mobilize their enthusiasm. As we all know, a great teacher can encourage students to find their potential, and be a trusted source of advice for students make right decisions in life. Also, students look to their teachers as mentors with knowledge and experience. So it is not exaggerate to say that a great teacher can change a student’s life. Take myself as an example, my kindergarten’s teacher was one of my mentors. I clearly remember she said to me: you are a good girl, do not shy, do yourself, and you must be excellent in the future. Her words encourage me to the performance of confidence because I know I can do well.

Overall, education is the foundation of a nation. People cannot decide whether a student goes to a good school bases on how much luck he/she has. Admittance according to students’ actual strength is a fair method. Also, the American education system failure has long-term consequences. Waiting for Superman let the audience to think deeper to look for solutions for U.S. Education.

Reference

1. Film Review Waiting for Superman (2010. (n.d.). Retrieved from  http://ijme-journal.org/index.php/ijme/article/download/419/573
2. U.S. academic achievement lags that of many other ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math
3. Waiting for "Superman". (2017, January 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:42, February 17, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php title=Waiting_for_%22Superman%22&oldid=761155716
4.  Three-year study finds teacher bonuses fail to improve test scores. By DORIE TURNER, The Associated Press, Southeast Missourian, September 22, 2010