The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
The American Federation of Teachers is very, very pleased with three stories appearing in liberal publications that purport to debunk aspects of the excellent documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" a movie by "An Inconvenient Truth" Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim that exposes the sorry state of many public schools, particularly in poor urban districts, and pleads for more charter schools. This week the AFT sent out a press release happily including links to a would-be Diane Ravitch takedown of the film in The New York Review of Books as well as pieces in the Columbia Journalism Review and on a New York Times blog.The Times blog posting is a particularly substance-free attack on the film and an implicit defense of the status quo; it says that an impoverished Bronx mom who visited a dynamic Harlem charter school with her child then returned to the school with Guggenheim's cameras in tow to recreate the experience of her first visit. Quel scandale! The Ravitch piece makes only the mildest murmurs of protest about teacher tenure, which as the film demonstrates is essentially awarded to any pedagogue who can remain breathing. Ravitch says tenure amounts merely to giving teachers "due process." Well. It's a process that leads to three out of 55,000 tenured New York City teachers getting the sack. Maybe all the others are doing a fine job.
The documentary effectively poses the question, "Have our schools gotten so bad that we're willing to allow actual competition?" The teachers' unions and their water-carriers in the press suddenly sound conservative when it comes to threats to repair a broken system. Slow down! Let's think about this! What's the rush? They essentially argue: Our kids are poor (so what can be done?), charter schools don't always succeed (no one said they did: the point of free markets in anything is that bad businesses be allowed to fail, yet this principle is almost never applied to any obviously failing public school), the charter schools are cherry-picking motivated students (though why the best students at the worst schools should be damned to suffer a poor education is never explained) and, of course, that schools need to be lavished with ever-more "resources," though Guggenheim ably demonstrates that some charter schools that spend a fraction of what public schools do show substantially better results.
"Waiting for 'Superman'" has done well, though not spectacularly, at the box office, with receipts over $5 milllion. What the teachers' unions really, really don't want to happen is for the film to reap an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary. Such an honor would entice many more Americans to see this vital film.
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May '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
Doesn't the fact that we didn't follow the prescriptions in Guggenheim's last film, An Inconvenient Truth, render his latest film moot, since priority number one should be to get these kids to higher ground?
May '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
I've ignored the film precisely because it's by the person behind An Inconvenient Truth. I agree with the general principle that government has too large a role in education, but Guggenheim hasn't exactly encouraged me to trust him.
I guess the bright side is that even liberals might watch it and care.
Jul '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
The AFT has zero credibility with me. Guggenheim has zero credibility with me. I feel like I'm watching a Senate floor debate on C-SPAN.
May '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
Guggenheim's faults notwithstanding, the film is supposedly excellent. I heard him interviewed a couple times, and he strikes me as a pretty clear thinker on this matter. So it's only natural the teachers unions would try to undermine him.
Hopefully all this pushback from liberals will push him and his talents further in the direction of the good guys.
Edited on Nov 11, 2010 at 8:02pmRe: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
Scott Reusser: Guggenheim's faults notwithstanding, the film is supposedly excellent.
And our own Bill McGurn wrote a glowing review of the film in the Wall Street Journal.
Aug '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
How "due" can the "process" be if no one in any other profession has it?
Besides, while one could argue (unpersuasively to me) that university professors have a special need for tenure because of the possibly controversial nature of their research, high school teachers don't do Jack S*** that's controversial--and if they do, they should stop.
Edited on Nov 12, 2010 at 12:10amJun '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgpxoS8nzE
We had some fun with Superman. But seriously, here in Taiwan, if teachers were as callous as they are in public schools in the US they would lynch them.. Education is future earnings and the Taiwanese get that.
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
mark simon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgpxoS8nzE
We had some fun with Superman.
THAT is awesome.
May '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
Despite your feelings about the filmmaker, see the movie. It pulls no punches, and the issue is that important.
And the organizational disease it exposes is present throughout the public sphere, and it is just as damaging to the people who are supposed to be "helped". This might be the issue that finally gets liberals to question the received truth from their Government and party.
Just as it took a Nixon to go to China, perhaps it takes a Guggenheim to expose the public unions and bureaucracy.
May '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
I haven't seen the movie, but declining on the grounds that the filmmaker is a liberal is a flimsy excuse. My son attends a charter school, despite the fact that we are lucky enough to have an excellent public school in our neighborhood. I imagine that many, if not most, of the parents at our charter school are political liberals. They have their kids at the charter school for the same reason I do - they want their kids to be well-educated citizens, and they don't trust that the traditional public schools will come through for them in the end.
Look at it this way - if a liberal like Guggenheim is producing the film, it means we're winning the argument. And that's the point, isn't it?
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
My total comment, Kyle: Welcome to Ricochet! It's good to have you with us.
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
I second that! I've been a fan for a while. Your movie reviews for the Post are must-reads in our house. Welcome!
May '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
Matthew, my point was about trust. An Inconvenient Truth wasn't merely a liberal pep rally. It was a blatant lie. If a filmmaker is biased but honest, then I just have to identify the bias and draw my own conclusions from the evidence. If a filmmaker is dishonest, then the problem is less the documentary's conclusions than the evidence itself.
But if y'all vouch for this one, then I'll give it a look. Thanks for the recommendation.
Aug '10
Re: The Empire Strikes Back at 'Waiting for Superman'
Kyle, great to see you over here at Ricochet! (I just hope the Carthusian Horseman, Hunter Tremayne, doesn't follow you!)