Waiting For Superman Analysis

Education as an Institution of Social Control
Education is aimed to provide equal opportunity for any child, no matter where they come from, an equal chance at success. Our school systems are failing because children are not being given that equal opportunity. This means that the institutions society are trusting to end social unfairness, our schools, are the ones boosting social and economic unfairness. The most prominent example of this is ultramodern schools with features such as multiple theaters, massive swimming pools, and indoor and outdoor tracks are being built on one block of a city; whereas, schools a few blocks away barely have a roof over their head remain. Public schools in financially poor cities consist of children who are
working just as hard as children in wealthier cities but aren’t being given the same opportunities to succeed. Because academic success is exceptionally challenging for these students, graduation rates are rather low. These poor cities have such trouble finding money to put towards better teachers, computers, educational material, etc. Another huge factor in school inequality is the size of schools. Schools that are larger tend to have an administrative organization where teachers report to administrators over decisions. However, in small schools teacher have more flexibility with lesson plans and can actively involve parents. These are two completely different types of schools based solely off of something as simple as school size. The majority of children in the United States attend public school. In these cases, where you live and the school district determine for you where you will attend school. ‘School choice’ is a perception that school reform is orbited around, meaning “various policies that give families options for deciding which school their children will attend.” Because of school reform, charter schools were developed. Charter schools are “public schools run by an organization independent from local school districts.” Because state government money is not fully funding these schools, they can create a lot of their own rules and distance themselves from the obstacles of regulations public schools have. By not being tied down to state regulations, charter schools can come up with their own approach of teaching and learning. Being able to change teaching based on different students, instead of one way of teaching for all students, dramatically increases a child’s chance to succeed. “Waiting for Superman” is a documentary that investigates different ways the education system in America is failing students.
It examines the function of charter schools and other educational reforms that are altering the potential of our education system. Students are dropping out, math and science test scores are dropping drastically all because of lack of funding. Five different children that attend regular public schools are analyzed and they tell their stories and describe the pressures they face because of public school education. The first student is Anthony, who lost his father drugs, never knew his mother, and now lives with his grandmother. The public school in his district is extremely dangerous and his grandmother is concerned for his safety. Daisy lives in East Los Angeles and no one in her family has ever gone to college; contrarily, she is a fifth grader who already knows she wants to be a doctor. Consequently for Daisy, 6 out of 10 students in her neighborhood don’t graduate from high school. Bianca is a kindergartener from Harlem, New York and her mother is a single mom who pays $500 a month for her daughter to go to a private school. When Bianca’s mom couldn’t afford the tuition anymore the school refused to let her graduate from kindergarten. Francisco and Emily are also two children who have families that are desperately seeking quality, affordable education for their children and are solely relying on their child getting into a charter or magnet school. These students deserve better and have the right to a better education leading to a better future. Charter schools and magnet schools are a huge step towards educational reform but there are simply not enough of them in place. Millions of kids are applying for these schools in hope of a better education, with only limited spots available. Because of the very limited space available and an enormous amount of children wanting to attend these schools, lotteries were put into place.
Lotteries are a method of choosing applicants to attend a certain charter school at complete random; therefore, the future of your education relies completely on the minimal chance that your name is drawn. Because so many children are applying for charter schools, this leaves an immense amount of students and families heartbroken. Even though charter schools have led to better education for students, it shouldn’t be left up to a lottery to decide whether a student gets a good education or not. There should be endless amounts of good education and chances to succeed regardless of where a child might live and from which background they come from.