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Analysis Of The Documentary 'Waiting For Superman'

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The documentary relates to the United States in the way of that the public school system is broken. Government and political officials have repeatedly promised to correct the public school system and have failed to deliver. Programs such as the no child left behind act and standardized tests have been created to correct this system. But these programs and tests actually hurt this system since they are based on a narrow curriculum not measuring an individual student 's skills and talents. Other issues which are mentioned in the documentary and affect our country are teachers unions and tenure. Teachers unions refuse to reward good teachers who actually aid our nation 's students so they are able to succeed. The tenure system legislated by the American Association of University Professors in 1900, keeps teachers who hinder the education and performance of students from being fired. Which leaves students to fail and these teachers with no repercussions. Such as in New York, between 2006 and 2011 only 32 out of 132,000 teachers were fired for any reason. …show more content…

This data along with data from other cities such as Chicago where only 0.1% of teachers between 2005 and 2008 were dismissed for performance-related circumstances, proves that in the united stated the public school system is broken and in need of help as stated in “Waiting for

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This brings up plenty of problems, especially when there is only one opinion going into making crucial decisions. One of the decisions the government decided to make is to not pay outrageous salaries anymore (O’Connor). The problem with this is that teachers make nothing near outrageous salaries. By cutting salaries of teachers and people above them, there will be less incentive to work. Not only do they not get paid nearly enough for what they do, but they have to buy their own classroom supplies as well.

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