Waiting For Superman Analysis

The documentary Waiting for “Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim, is a film that shows how school systems are today. This film follows five children and documents them to see what their lives and schools are like. These students range in age from first graders to eighth graders. They also all live in different areas of the country, including California, Washington D.C., and New York. During the production of the documentary, Guggenheim found evidence showing that many teachers are bad instructors and that many schools are failing to educate their students. This documentary shows the problems of teaching in America. These problems are a continuing challenge to be solved and the adults need to come up with an effective approach to resolve

The documentary mentions that there are very few spaces available to get into a “good” school. In the film, the director follows five different students. All of these students want a better education. In the start of the film, some of the students are in bad schools, like Anthony, who lives in Washington, DC. His school is considered a drop-out factory, where a large amount of people attending the school will quit. Throughout the United States, there are over 2000 drop-out factories (Waiting for “Superman”). To get a better education though, the students cannot just attend public school, but they must apply for a charter school. Charter schools are hard to find, and there are limited spaces for students in them. Summit Prep, in Redwood City, California, is a charter school that holds all students to the same high academic level. Todd Dickson, Principle of Summit Prep, says, “We think every kid should be able to get to the highest level of curriculum” (qtd. in Waiting for “Superman”). Emily, an eighth grade student, is one of the 455 applicants applying to get into Summit Prep, where there are only 110 spaces available (Waiting for “Superman”).

All of the kids and their parents are nervous for the drawings to see if they are accepted. After the results, only two of the five kids in the film are accepted. Anthony, one of the two kids, was not accepted at first, but was put on a waiting list to fill any new opening spots. Luckily, enough spots were open for Anthony to be accepted. For the other three kids, they had to continue going to public schools where their future academic education is not promised to them. Unfortunately, today’s education system in America is broken, and many of the teachers are corrupt. Hopefully, in the near future, the American society can resolve the education system’s problems and make the United States education highly ranked amongst other high ranked