Critical Reflection
In the video “Waiting for Superman”, we
see an in depth view on the educational issues affecting the U.S. and how it
directly affects our nation’s children who are at the heart of the situation. The
video brings out varying points which would call for agreement as well as
disagreement based on the individual viewing its content. Beginning with
Geoffrey Canada’s account of his childhood, coming through a failing education
system but luckily getting a chance to obtain a degree from Harvard and
eventually making a difference in New York and the country’s education system
as a hold; showing that schools within the disadvantaged areas have been handed
the bad end of the stick for a long time now.
As Sandra Parker in her 2015 October
article,
on the real reasons why the American education system is failing says, “Chances
are really good that for the most part, the students that attend the less
affluent districts are not only one, but several grade levels below where they
are supposed to be. This people, is where you really see some great educators
at work! They not only have to teach the actual content, but also re-teach the
gaps that impedes these students from learning the new content.” Unfortunately,
the children living in disadvantaged areas are subject to being left behind in
almost if not every subject area, making it almost impossible for them to every
catch up barring a miracle.
Geoffrey Canada makes the point even more
clear that no one person has the answer to our broken education system, not
even the great Superman. “One
of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me ‘Superman’ did not
exist,” the educational reformer Geoffrey Canada
recalls in the opening moments of “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ”
a powerful and alarming documentary about America’s failing public school
system. “She thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I
was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us.” It
maybe that the real Superman will have to be a consistent and dedicated set of
Teachers, administrators, parents and all other parties involved in our
education system nationwide taking full responsibility in seeing our children
through to certain success.
As LynNeil Hancock shows us in the article ‘Why are Finland’s
schools so successful?’, “There are no mandated
standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’
senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or
competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are
publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from
national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people,
military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national
goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result
is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education
no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The
differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the
world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish
education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said
Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.” As we can
see, the way the Finnish education system is set up, it’s pretty hard for any
student to fail regardless of their race or background. The
Finnish Teachers are most if not all proficient and constant, showing care and
compassion in their Teaching. The U.S. should prove their Teachers first. The
U.S. would do well to take a page out of the Finn’s book on education systems.
They are unified under one goal and cause and this is nationwide. Their nets so
to speak are hard to break therefore the students would have to rebel in such a
way as to end up falling through the cracks. As a Finnish Teacher states, “Equality
is the most important word in Finnish education.” The United States education
system in terms of those in charge are so divided on many issues no wonder the
saying goes, “An house divided against itself cannot stand.” Many factors need
to be weighed in and changed, this needs to happen as soon as possible as we
have seen the deterioration for decades now.
William Galston in his
article on how bad are the Public Schools? states, “What you need is some
constancy, both in terms of instruction, and in terms of the human resources
that are there. You need proficiency, and you need constancy in those schools,
just like you have it in other schools that are doing extremely well. And
simply, when you find principals and teachers who are committed and love that
school, they don't leave. There are no vacancies there.” Galston drives the
point home more poignantly that Teachers need to have certain dispositions in
order to make a real difference and that the schools need to look out for these
kinds of individuals and keep them. It is quite unfortunate that many ‘lemon
heads’ are tenured in their schools and so they can’t get fired only transferred
to another facility to further bring it down.
Stephen Holden of the New York Times
puts it this way, “Ms. Rhee, who
has stridently challenged Washington’s educational status quo, has closed
ineffective schools and has stood up to the unions that have made it nearly
impossible to fire a teacher, no matter how incompetent, once tenure has been
granted. But the Washington Teachers’ Union refused to vote on a measure under
which teachers would give up tenure in exchange for higher salaries based on
merit. (Ms. Rhee’s status is now in jeopardy after one of her chief supporters,
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, lost the Democratic primary election to Vincent C. Gray,
the chairman of the City Council. Ms. Rhee and Mr. Gray, who have sparred in
recent years, met on Thursday.)” I applaud Ms. Rhee’s effort to reform the school
districts under her jurisdiction however she is no Superman and cannot dod it
alone. It is quite sad that it is the ones who are under her but in charge of
students themselves, who have been along with the Teacher’s union, who have
been the road blocks and red tapes set up to effective block the progress of
countless students squeezed in our education system.
John Hood in
his article on ‘the failure of American public schools’ puts it this way, “Some
critics believe that public education reforms fail because they are compromised
or sabotaged by the education lobbies—teacher associations, administrators, and
the legislators in their pockets… and yet mediocre teachers, who dominate
teacher unions and the education lobbyists in Washington and the state
capitals, continue to resist this basic change.” It has perfectly said the
truth and it shows that true change will never take place until certain pro-education
policies are set in place while the bad apples or lemons are not transferred
but permanently removed from the educational system. While I do agree that
change must come, I must echo the fact that many reforms have come and gone yet
there has been no real change. This is what many of the critics are saying and
they are right to a certain point as it does not mean that we should not
continue to try and come up with the right way of doing things, especially for
our children’s sake. If that is what they are advocating in the long run then I
have to disagree. Change is necessary, even if it takes 100 years.
Jal Mehta in the article, ‘Why American Education fails’ puts the aforementioned in
this way, “Although no one disputes the value of education, how the country
should improve it is fiercely contested. Every few years, along comes a new
idea to save American schools, be it enforcing standards, opening charter
schools, providing vouchers for private education, or paying teachers based on
their performance. Most recently, two federal programs have sought to remake
the U.S. education system: No Child Left Behind, a 2001 law that sought to use
standards and accountability to push all students to proficiency by 2014, and
Race to the Top, an Obama administration initiative that has tried to
incentivize change by offering competitive grants to states pursuing reform
agendas. All this activity has generated progress in some areas, but it has not
led to widespread improvement.” As I stated before, I agree with the critics
especially those of Ms. Rhee in Washington that many reforms have been tried
with no success but we must keep in mind that we cannot for a minute cease form
finding a reform that will work for our nation’s children.
Here are few critics’ reviews regarding ‘Waiting
for Superman’, some positive, some negative but they do weigh in. Sean Burns of the Philadelphia
Weekly says “Overlooks some larger issues
regarding systemic poverty and social inequities, while the tricky matter of
private funding is elided altogether.” Roger Moore of Movie Nation says “More
overwhelming than uplifting, and you can't help but feel this is a rich
outsider looking in, and down on, public schools.” Robert Roten
of Laramie
Movie Scope says “While it may not be comprehensive in its approach, it is powerful
enough to get all but the most apathetic people stirred up enough to do
something.” Nigel Andrews
of Financial
Times says, “You know you're in an endangered superpower when a
vice-president who spells "potatos" without an "e" is
followed two decades later by a president for whom the plural of child is
"childrens.”
Philip Martin
of Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette says “...a persuasive, thoughtful argument; an advocacy film
that should be taken as an opportunity to open an important conversation about
our future - and whether we're willing to do the work necessary to justify our
national amour-propre.” And Matt Brunson
of Creative
Loafing says, “It's impossible not to be left either elated or heartbroken, depending on
which way the (lottery) ball bounces.” Though some are negative and some
positive, I believe they are well rounded in perspective since it is true that
the video does not take every educational problem into scope yet it covers
sufficient issues that will keep the public conversation on going perhaps until
true change comes.
In conclusion, we see that the issues affecting education in America are
numerous and wide ranging and are far from being fixed. This is an ongoing
conversation which will continue until here is certain change and national success
for our children. The United States will have to make certain definitive changes
to the education policy as soon as possible if we are to maintain our status a
world power or world leader.
Mehta,
Jal. (2013). Why American Education fails and how lessons from abroad could
improve it by. May/June 2013 issue Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2013-04-03/why-american-education-fails
Hood, John. (1993,
February 1). The Failure of American Public Education. The Freeman. Retrieved
from http://fee.org/freeman/the-failure-of-american-public-education/
Hancock, LynNeil.
(2011, September). Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? By
Galtson, William. (2014). Article on How
bad are the Public Schools. Frontline. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/vouchers/howbad/crisis.html
Parker, Sandra. (2015, October). Article
on The real reasons why the American education system is failing. The News Herald.
Retrieved from http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2015/08/31/opinion/doc55de1f7edc254417802542.txt
Holden, Stephen.
(2010, September 23). The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/movies/24waiting.html
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