So interesting that this topic was brought up as I just saw "Waiting for Super Man" this past weekend. It has been on my mind since.

WFS does not say charter = good. In fact, they point out that fewer than half of charters are considered successful. What they do is talk a lot about drop-out factories. High Schools where for 15+ years fewer than 1/2 the students will graduate. They interviewed superintendents, teachers, parents who basically said if you go to that school, you won't go to college and probably won't graduate hs.

I felt the movie was trying to say, "This is America. Why would we fund and continue to run a school we know is failing children."

The big lottery scenes you see in the trailers were showing how desperate people were to get out of these terrible schools. They did complement some of the higher performing charter schools, but it seemed to me the real point is "why do we continue to fund poor teachers and poor schools at the cost of the kids."

WFS said multiple times, "we care more about adult concerns (i.e. people losing jobs from a school closing) than the future of these kids."

There were also several things said about how bad tracking is because the measures for tracking in many systems aren't valid measures versus a true fair method. And thus when kids get into the lower track, they can't escape it because they fall more and more behind. I think they were even saying there are GT kids on the lower track because of the biased entrance requirements.

This tracking part kind of tore at me a little because I'm someone whose child isn't getting what they need academically and is sitting in the high track. I can't imagine if there wasn't a track and he was getting less. But from a macro perspective I get what they are saying.

Anyway, the movie left me thinking. It made me feel fortunate because I have the ability and time to teach in the off hours. What about the poor kids who don't have someone.

Also, there were several moms who were trying to advocate for their kids and getting nowhere. For me, it was a reminder that it isn't just GT kids getting the shaft. There are really big problems here with the overall system.

There are some great public schools, but there are some really really bad ones too. That was the point of the film, many kid's futures are probably decided by some extent by the boundary lines for the district, which not only hurts many kids but also the health/future of our country.

I encourage you to see the film if you haven't already.

Last edited by Sailing; 05/25/11 08:40 PM.