Waiting for ‘Superman’ (2010)

Directed by: Davis Guggenheim | 111 minutes | documentary

Waiting for ‘Superman’, Davis Guggenheim’s latest documentary, describes the failing American education system. First of all, it is a very political film that really wants to put the problem of education on the map. Director Guggenheim is also no stranger to Washington. He previously shot ‘The Inconvenient Truth’ for Al Gore and was involved in President Obama’s campaign. The film also seems to have caused a lot of commotion and indignation in the United States. As a pamphlet, this work by Guggenheim has already succeeded in America. Will the film also have its feet in the Netherlands in the Netherlands?

The documentary shockingly shows how bad the education system in the United States is. Virtually all American states are underperforming in language and mathematics. In the capital Washington DC it is even the worst performing! A large number of schools are well-known dropout factories, schools where more children drop out of education than they actually graduate. Frustrated reformers and shocking statistics aren’t the only means by which Guggenheim makes his point. Five American families with young children were followed for the film. The families are forced to go to a public school. We see how parents sometimes desperately try to get the children into public schools that give the children the best opportunities. Guggenheim also wanted to clearly point out the victims of the failing system.

In the documentary, the filmmaker does not hide where, according to him, the causes of the problems lie. First, they are unmotivated, bad teachers who are ridiculously well protected by their unions. Many an educational reformer, in the film they are all determined heads, biting on the bureaucracy and the unwillingness of unions to change things. Few of them seem to want to stay in service much longer than a year. In their desperation, schools even resort to a ‘lemmon dance’. Every year they send their bad teachers to a different school and get some bad teachers in return. The system is fueled by the hope of getting back better teachers than the teachers the school gets rid of. Incidentally, not all public schools come out as dropout factories. On the contrary, at so-called charter school weak students also receive attention, which means that relatively many pass. These schools are very popular and there are long queues for them. Lotteries are used to decide who gets into these better public schools and who doesn’t. The highlight, and actually the most dramatic moment in this film is the shooting around these lotteries.

The children anxiously hope to be admitted. However, their chances are terribly slim. And yet it is not a film that leaves the viewing public in despair. The successful charter schools are showing promising results. We also see how Michelle Rhee, the new teacher inspector, manages to achieve results in DC. Herein lies the problem with this documentary. How objective is this? Rehearsal doesn’t really take place. Although a chairman of the teachers’ union does appear a number of times, she is dismissed as the leader of the conservative forces that are paralyzing the system. This documentary is in fact not really a documentary. It is a political message intended to steer the political debate. Don’t forget that when you watch this movie!