Waiting for "Superman": A Monumentally Important Film

The Hamptons International Film Festival just concluded on Monday. Once again, Executive Director Karen Arikian, Program Director David Nugent and Board Chair Stuart Suna are to be commended for a truly fantastic program of fascinating films and related programs. The cinematography of Black Swan, Michelle Williams' indelible performance in Blue Valentine, Danny Boyle and James Franco's work in 127 Hours all made vivid impressions on audiences.

Although it's difficult to name a "best film" or favorite from the long list that screened there, one truly does stand out. Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for "Superman" is unforgettable.

Guggenheim directed An Inconvenient Truth and It Might Get Loud. However, even more so than the issue of global warming (somehow), the questions and concerns raised by Waiting for "Superman" are deep and effect us all. Public education in America is collapsing. Students are not being served, and neither are tax payers. Whether or not teachers' unions are partly to blame is open to discussion, but Guggenheim's film casts a light on that perspective. And once you get a peek at New York City's "Rubber Room" for outcast teachers, you may never view the NEA and the AFT the same way again.

This is a monumentally important film. My father was a public school teacher for 28 years and I can think of few other areas in our society that deserve this type of urgent scrutiny right now. See Guggenheim's film, which opens in theaters this weekend.

PS: A quick story. AOL offered me $100,000 to be photographed by famed photographer Chuck Close, as I have been an AOL subscriber for many years. The photos would be used in AOL advertising and the money would go to charity.

Today, on AOL's homepage, I am accused of insulting actor Jim Parsons for sending him a congratulatory gift basket, inside of which I added a card that read "Congratulations you talented, charming bastard."

I thought that was a joke. I think Parsons knew that. I think anyone on Earth could see that. Except the eighth degree, black belt idiots that compose the AOL homepage.

I'm still a loyal AOL user. In spite of the fact that its homepage content is written by the dumbest bastards in the world.

 

Comments

[dahpunkster]

08:45 PM on 11/13/2010

I guess I will have to add this to a book I will be reading. Thanks for keeping it real and writing in a frank funny manner.

[terri autorino]

05:34 PM on 10/19/2010

OBAMA/BALDWIN 2012!!!

[Sean Taylor Teacher]

12:45 AM on 10/18/2010

KIPP is great dystopian education system that will set equal rights back 50 years They will never let Severe and Profound Cognitive Disability (mental retardation) , Medically Fragile, Deaf and Blind students attend a KIPP academy, because it will mess up test scores and cost to much. No kids in wheel chairs waiting for their lottery chance to go to a KIPP academy. Maybe those kids will be lucky and have an owl visit them with an invitation to go to Hogwarts. Sean Taylor M.Ed Special Ed

[frank day]

03:01 PM on 10/18/2010

Great points Sean. When these Charter Schools do well at testing, it's because they can cherry pick students.

[ares]

11:00 PM on 10/17/2010

Couldn't didsagree with Baldwin's take on this "film" more. Monumentally important? Deep? What really deserves the most "urgent scrutiny" here is how the right has come to hijack the subject of school reform.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-ayers-/an-inconvenient-superman-_b_716420.html

An honest education documentary actually worth seeing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danny-miller/go-see-the-iotheri-educat_b_722159.html

[yrbmegr]

10:24 PM on 10/17/2010

Quaint, the notion of "fixing" or "improving" something a large segment of our voters are trying to abolish.

[frank day]

10:55 PM on 10/17/2010

It's the same group of people.
Read 'fixing' in Orwellian.

[lowlycitizen]

09:49 PM on 10/17/2010

I'm from California and I'm surprised why Republicans (Meg Whitman, that's you too) seem to care for the education of kids when:

1) It's ok for Republicans to extend tax breaks for capital gains at the expense of California's general fund where education get its funding from; and

2) If a kid grows up smart, knowledgable, caring about the environment, accepting of other people, and concerned about humanitarian issues, the right wing and their kooks will call this same kid an elitist and a socialist.

[KarlaElisa]

09:05 PM on 10/17/2010

Nice ending to that story!

I'm going to catch this film.

[JohnComposMentis]

06:46 PM on 10/17/2010

I saw this film earlier this afternoon. Even if you accept its premise that unions are a barrier to change, the missing piece is the real difficulty in identifying the good teachers vs. the bad teachers. As was noted in the film, it is common for a new teacher to take a couple of years to feel comfortable, and after that it is difficult to quantify good teachers who happened to draw a tough class that year (or were assigned a tough class because they are good teachers) vs. just plain bad teachers. Even after that, when a teachers has several years of results that start to become statistically significant and not just anecdotal, it is hard to define success--is having all students above average really better than helping gifted students reach their full potential at some expense to other students? Given the amorphous definition of "good teacher," it's a sure thing that other common organizational failings will creep in, such as unfounded favoritism, groupthink, and hostility to anyone who rocks the boat. The film, however, very movingly depicts the deep disappointment of students and parents who lose the lottery for a spot in the good schools--the likelihood of their success in life is at stake.

[DumbleGoat]

06:41 PM on 10/17/2010

I think I will become a teacher now, as I find myself presently, a little bored and unengaged.
Thanks, A..... Thanks "Superman" team.

DumbleGoat says, " +10 points to any teacher who says to kids:
"One day people you are going to wake up and all this, the people around you, the good kids bad kids, and the teachers and the janitors, librarians - it all goes away. I as teacher am here just for that day (this maybe should be MANTRA of NEA?" -2 to teachers who just wanna get by, numb kids (there is still hope for you too).

[Tim McCown]

05:19 PM on 10/17/2010

Alec stop shamelessly shilling for a mean spirited movie that blames teachers and their unions for making it hard for them to take the 750 million dollars we spend on education. This movie is little more than a propaganda hit piece. This movie has been funded by Bill Gates and Wal- Martt among others. They are not trying to fix education they are trying to create a for profit market for educational services that can be traded on the stock market. Hedge Funds are behind Charter Schools not because they give two hoots about any childs education but because they can double their investment through tax breaks worth trillions ultimately. One of the issues with public education is funding. I can attest to that as a teacher I buy a lot of supplies for my classroom myself because there is no money for it. What is really cynical about this bunch of financial predators is their exploitation of valid Black Americans grievances about public education. Yet here is the kicker, with all the money these Corporate parasites have gotten Charter Schools only equal what a public school can do 17% of the time. If you truly want a dialogue don't put your name on shameless propaganda start hosting town halls with teachers like myself who would be more than willing to share what we think but refuse to be told by Corporatists what to think. Some of my thoughts are in agreement with Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.

[frank day]

08:00 PM on 10/17/2010

This movie stinks of right wing propaganda. Wouldn't be surprised if Karl Rove had a hand in it.

Keep our Public Schools Public. Big Business, keep your hands off our kids.

[rrose]

08:42 PM on 10/17/2010

I have not seen the movie yet but I will.

In the meantime, an observation for Mr. Day: If Alec Baldwin thinks it's an excellent movie, then I doubt very much that Karl Rove had anything to do with it.

[Between Warring Camps]

05:03 PM on 10/17/2010

I think it would be terrific if Alec would comment on something he knows about..perhaps acting would be good. He's a great actor and that's fine, but why that means he's qualified to make this kind of pronouncement on teaching is a mystery to me. An uninformed opinion, no matter how sincere, is still uninformed.

[Joseph Furtenbacher]

04:40 PM on 10/17/2010

There are two kinds of people: those who must produce their own food or starve, and those who would rather starve than have people think they need to produce any part of their food. Any society in which this particular brand of status addiction spreads to any extent is a society in decay (think of a field of plants that are all flowers and no roots), and, unless reversed by, say, teaching children *horticulture*, is one that will be consigned to the compost heap of history.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled fault finding.

[KarlaElisa]

09:09 PM on 10/17/2010

Fanned for your brilliant statement.

[Live4literacy]

04:22 PM on 10/17/2010

This is the right wing agenda for education now "legitimitized" in a for profit documentary by someone who never attended public schools. NY's rubber rooms are NY's, never heard of that anywhere else. It's easy to fire teachers but administrators don't have the desire or fortitude to do it. The vast majority of teachers are dedicated, smart, and hard working much like any other profession. Why education has suddenly become the target of the right wing? Because it's one of the biggest sources of public monies that they are trying to get their hands on. Charter schools have been around now for more than a decade...do you see them changing the schools around them? No, because they are run exactly like public schools except they can expel low performing students, special ed students, behavior problems,etc. UNLIKE public schools. I attended public schools and got a fabulous education and my kids do too and they are getting a great education in Florida. Funny, private school teachers go to the same universities as public school teachers and charter school teachers, and , yet, somehow, by virtue of teaching at private and charter, somehow they are better, more qualified? Alec, do me a huge favor and read Diane Ravitch's book The Death and Life of the American Public School System before you jump on this bandwagon. I would remind you that every nation beating us in math, science, and literacy does NOT have a charter or choice system, but a public one.

[NewAmericanCenturySucks]

01:50 PM on 10/17/2010

A Canadian perspective:

America puts a very high priority on national security and road transport. It's public army and highways are better funded - and thus more impressive - than Canada's.

Canada puts a very high priority on healthcare and education. It's public hospitals and schools are better-funded - and thus more impressive - than America's.

The lesson I try to teach my kids is that you can have anything you want in life...

...just not everything.

[samanthemofthesun]

01:21 PM on 10/17/2010

*sigh*...so many haters. Whether or not the movie is good, valid, or not does not give anyone a reason to say hateful things about someone they don't know personally. Geeze. The number one thing wrong in America? Our love of hating.