Waiting For Superman Analysis

learns the struggles America has to find good teachers who are willing to motivate students and give them the push and motivation that they need to excel and succeed in primary school. Through his content included in Waiting for “Superman”, Guggenheim also includes actions that can be taken in order to do the reforming. This is a very important aspect to documentary. It is one thing to simply list problems, issues or reforms that need to be made by filming a documentary. Instead, Guggenheim goes beyond this as he offers alternative approaches to the current problems students are facing today. For example, “Guggenheim explores innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind” (Guggenheim, 1). We as an American society reflect our nation as one with the motto “No Student Left Behind.” Therefore, Guggenheim investigates the
system to find out why students are still being left behind, so that we can change that. Some of the most important content included in the documentary is how easily a public school teacher can achieve tenure along with the incapability to fire a teacher who is tenured (Heilemann, 1). Guggenheim is a strong supporter of outstanding teachers, therefore, he chose to show how the public school system attempts to reprimand poorly performing teachers, which then has an impact of the schools environment. The content included also portrays how teaching standards are constantly conflicting between teaching expectations at the school, state, or federal level and how this is a problem toward consensus (Heilemann, 1).

Throughout the documentary, the content encompasses many statistical comparisons that are analyzed in regards to educational institutions. These include what are available in America known as: state school, private school, and charter school (Goldstein, 1). Part of understanding the different type of schools that are available includes knowing the characteristics of the students who attend the schools. For example, Guggenheim shows the difference between schools in affluent neighborhoods versus schools in predominantly poorer areas. A major problem raised throughout the entirety of the documentary is that public schools are not serving adequate education, therefore, bringing students to apply to charter schools. Meanwhile, these charter schools tend to be too small to accept even half of the applicants, which lead to a lottery. The film truly pulls on the audience’s heartstrings as we watch students who are denied from the charter schools as well as the strenuous and difficult process students and families go through in attempt to gain admittance into a better school. Through investigations, as well as the lives of the five young students, Guggenheim is able to use surveying details to analyze the so called “academic sinkholes”, which refer to the many public schools in America (Goldstein, 1). Guggenheim uses a methodical approach to the evaluation of the young students along with research and data from public schools academic accomplishments as well as failures.
While a documentary such as this seems to offer a wide range of issues and hopeful solutions, it is important to look at the criticism it receives as well.
A teacher-backed group called the Grassroots Education Movement produced a rebuttal film titled, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for “Superman”. The film by Real Reform Studios refutes the claims in Waiting for “Superman”. This film also criticizes some public figures featured in Waiting for "Superman" and proposes different policies to improve education in the United States (Resmovits, 1). Overall, Waiting for “Superman” exemplifies the qualities of both an interactive and expository documentary. It seeks to change the American public school system, change policies, and influences people’s beliefs through powerful voice-overs along with questioning and interaction with students and families who are directly effected by the school systems. The documentary is clear and concise in its job of representing epistemological issues that are major in American society and currently taking
place.