‘Time’ Article and New Documentary Shed Light on the State of Education in the U.S.

A piece in last week’s Time magazine brought the state of education in the country to the forefront. It cited the need for immediate reform as per pupil spending is increasing but math and science levels are strongly lagging behind other developed nations. What’s worse is that today’s students will have lower literacy rates compared to the previous generation. The article also ties into the release of the new documentary, Waiting for Superman (opening nationwide on Oct 1), which chronicles five students and their families as they try to leave under-performing schools to get into charter schools with records of success. The film shows how charters are succeeding because of different ways of delivering education and how many are outperforming traditional counterpart schools.

Some of the concerns around change and reform are the role of teachers and how approaches to education have changed little in past decades. The process and the system, though, are complex as stated by the director, Davis Guggenheim, who also directed An Inconvenient Truth, when he said “this is the hardest movie we’ve made, by a factor of 10.” Education reform is indeed a complex issue, but it is crucial that policy changes are enacted so we can continue to be globally competitive and creative well into the 21st Century. Please click here to read the full article and click here to find out more information about the documentary as well as showtimes.

Waiting for Superman

A new documentary from David Guggenheim, creator of “An Inconvenient Truth”, explores the current state of public education in our country and how it is failing our children.  In “Waiting for Superman” (out September 24th), Guggenheim follows five kids and their parents who, in their quest to obtain a decent public education, must enter a lottery system to be admitted to a good charter school because their “home schools” are failures. Along with the kid’s stories, Guggenheim introduces the audience to a group of education reformers currently trying to create better schools with better teachers to give children a better education.

Also, check out Thomas Friedman’s article from the New York Times on “Waiting for Superman”.

As a future teacher, I believe that the condition of our education system is in need of an overhaul from everyone involved–teachers, principles and parents alike. This critical issue had flown under the radar for far too long and hopefully this movie will bring to light the sad situation that faces the future generations if they are not given the proper education they deserve.

Becky Grossman
Research Assistant