Waiting for Superman

Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) has made a new documentary about public schools. "Waiting for Superman" opens soon and is expected to generate alot of attention. In a recent article in New York Magazine entitled, Schools: The Disaster Movie, John Heileman discusses the movie and its director, whom he refers to as, "an unrepentant liberal." http://nymag.com/news/features/67966/ That's a strange term. What liberal school policies is Guggenheim unrepentant about? Racial desegration? The free school lunch program? Special education services for the disabled? If so, more power to him. But if he's unrepentant about busing, open classrooms, full inclusion, whole language, values clarification, or other variously liberal policies I could mention, then I'm not so sure. Heileman is probably using the term loosely, though it is still very weird. But I am getting way off track. What I really wanted to comment on is the thrust of Heileman's movie review: that terrific teachers are THE KEY to student success.

According to Heileman, Guggenheim's position is that "no variable is more critical to the success of students than terrific teachers." That may be true to an extent. Within the school, teachers probably are the variable most important to student success. Most people would agree with that. But what is wrong with Heileman's and Guggenheim's assertion is what it leaves out, the parents.

In a larger sense, it is not terrific teachers but rather terrific parents that are of paramount importance to children's success in school and in life. Waiting for Superman might acknowledge this reality, but nothing in Heileman's review suggests that it does. Instead, it offers the modest proposal that we bring in a new breed of teacher, a teacher who graduated from the top third, doesn't mind working nights and weekends or expect summers off. Perhaps that is what is meant by the movie title, Waiting for Superman, which I'll remind you Heilemen called a disaster movie. So here's the scenario: our poor helpless schoolchildren are trapped in failing schools. And they're going to fail unless terrific teachers rescue them. There are teachers currently on the scene trying to help, but they can't because they're weak and ineffective (or crappy, as Heileman put it). So the children must wait for Superman, or super teachers, to arrive. But what can we do to make super teachers come to the rescue?

Heilemen has the answser. He cites a study that says super teachers could be attracted to the field for a starting salary of $65,000 and a top salary of $150,000. Will the new breed of super teachers arrive in time to save the trapped children from failing?

Don't touch that dial, movie fans.