I graduated high-school in 1969 when their was a draft and young men were being sent to Vietnam. One way to get out of the draft was to go to college to become a teacher. As you can imagine there was a rise in teachers entering the workplace. Needless to say there were many who may not have been “called” to become a teacher nor had a passion to teach.
Today it’s job security and great life-long benefits which can be as appealing, if not more so for some, than the actual “profession”.
There was a glaring omission for best documentary at the Oscars this year. You would think that the director of “An Inconvenient Truth”, which won an Oscar would have been considered for a nomination for best documentary with his in-depth look at the state of our educational system here in America. Davis Guggenheim, director and producer was the darling of the left when “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Oscar… after this documentary, not so much today.
“Waiting For Superman” is a documentary that explores the American educational system as it follows five students.
PBS states “may be the hottest documentary since director Davis Guggenheim’s last film “An Inconvenient Truth”
What the documentary discovered and exposes:
- Throwing money at the problem doesn’t work.
In the last several decades we’ve more than doubled the money to our school system and yet there has been no change in results. - Bust the myth that low income inner city districts cannot educate their kids.
- Without good parenting or home environment children cannot learn.
Not true.
OK, so it’s not money, location or home environment… hmmm, what’s left.
Superman is not in Wisconsin this week.
a proposal of Michelle Rhee — the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system — to pay teachers in the district up to $140k based on merit, if tenure would be ended in the district. In the world capital of democracy, the teacher union leaders refused to let this proposal go to a union vote.
Fixing public schools: Davis Guggenheim on ‘Waiting for Superman’ | PBS
[amazonify]B003Q6D28C[/amazonify]
Further viewing:
A Conversation on “Waiting for Superman”
Stanford University
Waiting for Superman : A Panel
Bill Gates, Geoffrey Canada, Davis Guggenheim, Eric Adler, Leslie Chilcott, Moderator Bob Schieffer
