Unlike ‘Superman,’ Guggenheim’s new film champions teachers
In Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman,” teachers and their unions were the antagonists. They looked out for their own interests, regardless of the impact on children, and were to blame for the U.S. educational problems. In his new film, “Teach,” Guggenheim has swung to the opposite end of the spectrum. The four teachers he follows throughout the course of a school year are the unquestioned heroes, hardworking and devoted.
The film, which aired last week on CBS, features shots of teachers leaving school as the sun sets, carrying work home with them, and scenes of tearful goodbyes on the last day of school. At times, it’s easy to see the movie as an acknowledgement of the shortcomings of “Waiting for Superman,” or asThe New York Times put it, “a valentine to the teaching profession.”
The documentary’s problem isn’t that it overcorrects at the expense of the truth – the vast majority of teachers I meet while reporting care deeply about their students and try their best to help them succeed, just like the teachers featured in the movie. The problem with “Teach” is that it fails to effectively get beyond this premise to what Guggenheim has said the true goal of the film is.
“This was an attempt to show what a really effective teacher is,” he told the LA School Report. “If we could understand that, maybe we could get more of them in the classroom.”
“Teach” does touch upon many important issues in education today, such as the student poverty,