Why Can't America Provide Quality Education?

Why can't every kid in America get a good education? That's the question filmmaker Davis Guggenheim asks in the documentary Waiting for "Superman". Teachers get it - everyday many of them see students with great potential fall by the wayside. The reasons are myriad and as diverse as the students themselves: a student's parents divorce and the stress masks the importance of schoolwork; the course material moves at a pace too quick for a student who learns through contemplation; another student is teased for being gay and can't concentrate on studying. Whatever the reasons, it is clear to Guggenheim and most of us within the education field that something has got to change. We're all waiting on a "superman" to fix America's failing education system.

Reactions to Guggenheim's film have been widely mixed. From deep emotion to outright criticism, the conversation is good - it lets us know that something is happening. People are talking and things will, with continued debate and eventual policy action, begin to change.

Waiting for "Superman" focuses on the lives of five students - Anthony, Daisy, Emily, Francisco, and Bianca - five students who just want to do well in school. They aren't concerned with whether or not charter schools work or if the lunches they eat in the school cafeteria are healthy. They just want to succeed in life. Most of all, these five young people can't understand why a country like America - the land of the free and home of the famed American dream - can't provide them with the stellar education they deserve.

Go see the film for yourself and tell us what you think!

Photo Credit: Gareth Simpson