Documentaries

Recently, I watched the documentary Waiting for Superman, which has been nominated for an Oscar. The film had a pretty clear-cut message. The school system as it is set up now, in a macro-level view, is failing. It points to many reasons why schools are becoming these “failure factories”, but the main obstacle (read: cause) is lazy teachers, and their protective unions. Davis Guggenheim (the director) showcases various students, along with their caretakers, on their quest to join savior-esque charter schools. These charter schools are meant to be the super heroes in the quest to save public education.

The audience for this film is primarily parents and educators, but Guggenheim tries to make it reach everyone. Problems with education translates to problems with all of society. America has fallen of the pedestal of number one in the country, and being surpassed. If we want to get back, everyone needs to heed reforms to public education.

Guggenheim uses various sources and techniques in the documentary. His following of a few students and their families allows the viewer to relate to the struggle. In the end when the lotteries for the charter schools are being conducted, most viewers are hoping to hear these students be chosen. Along with this technique of putting a face to the statistics, there are of course the statistics. Graphs and various other research tactics are shown throughout the film to show the wasting of tax dollars, to the fall in the education system, and many other elements. The film presents the views of quite a few different perspectives. There is a white girl from a two parent household in a suburban school trying to get into a school, all the way to a single parent and her daughter who can no longer afford a private school in New York. Politicians, parents, school administrators and teachers are all given there chance to voice their opinions, but the opinions are usually in favor of what the film is promoting.

But how can’t they be. Everyone agrees that the school system is not working perfectly. The achievement gap is horrible, and growing worse and worse. However, the filmmakers are praising charter schools they neglect the fact that the majority of the schools fail. They are blaming teacher’s unions for slowing down progress, but not taking into consideration the reason behind its’ disapproval of merit pay.

Due to this lack of seeing all aspects of the situation (granted it is a near impossibility to do), I don’t think the film really captures the reality of the issue. It shows the problem and provides a solution to it, but I feel it isn’t hitting all sides of the issues. But I have also seen the argument against the film from Not Waiting for Superman. So it is probably pretty successful in reaching the audience of parents who are easy to look for someone to put the blame of their children’s failures.

Class Assignment:

I would probably not have the students watch this documentary. It would be a little too risky in causing students’ putting the blame on the system and letting them not put forth effort. They’d have a scapegoat. Instead, I would have them watch a documentary such as Food, Inc. We would then talk about the credibility of the film (who funded it, who is portrayed in it), the underlining message, and whether it will change their perspectives (change there eating habits, social change, etc.). I like the four-corners activity (with one corner strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree) and I would do a variation on that. Some questions would be: documentaries persuade the audience therefore have some element of bias, documentaries are entirely realistic, documentaries utilize fear tactics to form their audiences, and I believe in this film. After each topic, each corner would discuss their reasoning and then have a spokeperson state their corner’s case.