Where's superman for the middle class?
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The documentary "Waiting for Superman" by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who previously directed Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," was a big hit at the recent Sundance Film Festival.
Voted best U.S. documentary by Sundance moviegoers, Guggenheim's film exposes the immense flaws in America's public school system and follows the lives of a handful of parents and their children who struggle to find alternative routes to a better education. Significantly, Guggenheim profiles both low-income and middle-class children.
The title of Guggenheim's latest film comes from an African American educator who recounts how, as a child, he would wait for his hero, Superman, to come and solve the problems around him. In too many of America's public schools, that wait continues. These schools are either dangerous, underperforming or both.
Half of students tested in California scored below proficient on the state English exam. Guggenheim points out that bad schools and bad schooling affect more than just poor kids.
"The revelation is that a lot of our schools, even our middle-class and our white schools, are suffering from the same dysfunction (as schools in low-income areas)," Guggenheim warns. The evidence bears him out.
A recent study by the Pacific Research Institute found hundreds of California public schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods where significant proportions of
Voted best U.S. documentary by Sundance moviegoers, Guggenheim's film exposes the immense flaws in America's public school system and follows the lives of a handful of parents and their children who struggle to find alternative routes to a better education. Significantly, Guggenheim profiles both low-income and middle-class children.
The title of Guggenheim's latest film comes from an African American educator who recounts how, as a child, he would wait for his hero, Superman, to come and solve the problems around him. In too many of America's public schools, that wait continues. These schools are either dangerous, underperforming or both.
Half of students tested in California scored below proficient on the state English exam. Guggenheim points out that bad schools and bad schooling affect more than just poor kids.
"The revelation is that a lot of our schools, even our middle-class and our white schools, are suffering from the same dysfunction (as schools in low-income areas)," Guggenheim warns. The evidence bears him out.
A recent study by the Pacific Research Institute found hundreds of California public schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods where significant proportions of
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/03/IN0H1CN4VD.DTL#ixzz0k8XGBVQ9
