On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 11:09 PM, Jerry Barnes <critic...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I've recommended it before and I'll recommend it again. If you haven't > seen > Waiting for Superman, check it out. If you are sensitive, it might bring a > tear to your eyes. One of the students followed goes to one of the best > public high schools in the country and enters the lottery for a charter > school in a poor district. > > J > > - > No need wasting a 1 slot netflix home delivery after this review. After all of the hype this movie received, I hoped for so much more. I left the theater frustrated and disappointed. As a teacher, I felt Guggenheim missed so many arguments that should have been addressed by any critical thinker; namely, if the system is broken, which we all agree it is, then what is the solution? Most of the information in this film was obvious to me, but what I hoped to get out of it was some sort of understanding as to how he proposes to fix it. After arguing that Nordic countries such as Finland had better school systems, he made no attempt to explain what made them better. Most frustrating was his depiction of American parents as caring supporters of brilliant children. At a Title I school, few parents ever show up for conferences despite the ridiculous hours I spend waiting for them. He failed to show how schools are viewed as babysitters instead of breeding grounds for young scholars. He jumped on the bandwagon to blame teachers/unions for the failure of the system instead of recognizing the MASSIVE shift in morality and parenting that existed in those successful years of our education system. I'm impressed by Michelle Rhee's attempt to reform the system, as well as Gates's attempt to throw large sums of money at the problem, however I don't see either of them becoming successful without the support of communities that helped to create failing schools by disallowing their students to be personally responsible, and holding middle/high-schoolers accountable for their own education. Guggenheim never filmed any child above the 5th Grade! How can he begin to criticize the "dropout factories" that he never entered? 'I left the theater frustrated and disappointed,' feeling that Guggenheim had coasted through this film on the acclaim he received for "Inconvenient Truth" and not on any real merit as an investigative filmmaker. I agree the system is broken, but Guggenheim failed to do any good with the opportunity he had to help fix it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340528 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
