...In 2010, Davis Guggenheim released one of the years most talked about documentaries, Waiting for Superman. His film was an eye opening, to many, look at the failings of the U.S. school system. The film follows five students across the U.S., who range in grade level from kindergarten to eighth grade, as they try and escape the public school system through a lottery for a chance admission to a charter school. Guggenheim lays the blame for the failing public education system at the feet of the various teachers unions, and makes a plea for the public in general to get involved in reforming the system. By analyzing Waiting for Superman through a sociological perspective, issues of inequality will be explained using the theoretical approach of the conflict perspective. Waiting for Superman begins with the director, David Guggenheim driving past the Los Angeles public schools as he takes his own children to a private school. Guggenheim starts to explain the problems with public education, in regards to how it is failing our society in general, and that the only way for the average family to escape it, is luck. The documentary follows five children, four are minorities from lower income families and one is white from an affluent area of California. All five face the same problem, a public education system that views them as numbers that feed the system. They are not considered for their individual talents or shortcomings. They are all doomed to follow a predestined track, developed...
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...How do you know if you are getting a good education? For some of us, having good teachers means getting good grades in school. In the documentary, “Waiting for Superman”, it demonstrates the importance of good teachers and the impact they have on students. If schools get more involved in the education of their students, children’s future would be affected greatly. Schools main focus needs to be providing a better education for children. In “Waiting For Superman,” the superintendent was trying to do away with bad teachers in his school due to them not teaching effectively. However, he was not successful because of “Tenure”. This ensures a teacher’s job for life after being a teacher for for three years, even if the teacher is doing a bad job. Some states do not have tenure, but the ones that do are reconsidering the terms and extending the time when a teacher can get this privilege. However, teacher unions continue to care more about teachers and their future instead of putting their main focus on what is good for the students....
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...There are many claims in Waiting for Superman. One claim that they make is standardized testing is important for schools. What Waiting for Superman means by this claim is that they think all students should have to take tests and quizzes to see how they improve their learning and to see what they have to work on. Diane Ravitch would say that there is no need for testing the children. Diane believed that it was possible to succeed not just by test scores. “Is it possible that we succeeded not because of test scores but because our society encourages something more important than test scores: the freedom to create, innovate, imagine, and think differently?” Diane Ravitch stares in American Schools in Crisis. Also another claim that Waiting...
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...Waiting for Superman speaks about how teachers are to blame for public schools failing and how charter schools are the way to fix this problem. The film also cites statistics that show high drop-out rates, particularly among minorities, and low test scores compared to the rest of the world. This is because bad teachers are protected by their powerful unions and are not meeting their students’ needs, while collecting a paycheck guaranteed by tenure. The film follows five children on their journey to win the lottery and gain a place at a charter school. The students and their parents (in one case, a grandmother) tell of their fear of being left out of the chance for a true education and forced to attend the failing public school in their area....
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...Reflection When I heard the assignment for Inquiry Two, I was quite excited. I had heard of “Waiting For Superman,” but had never really had the chance to watch it. The topic of it is something that I am extremely passionate about and was eager to learn more about. So I happily watched the documentary and quickly whipped out a first draft (rough rough draft) without even really having to think about it- the words just poured out. However, when writing my real rough draft, I tried to focus a bit more on the rhetorical appeals. My revision process on Inquiry Two was much more rigorous than my typical revision process. At my meeting with Bridget for my conference on my rough draft of Inquiry 2, she had me read my paper aloud. Reading it out loud made me realize how focused the paper really was on my thoughts and my opinions on the topic of the documentary. There was way too much emphasis on my thoughts on the public school systems of America, and not nearly enough rhetorical analysis of the documentary. I wrote what felt like millions of drafts and printed them all out and scribbled all over them. I also used Bridget as resource and took her ideas and comments into considering my final draft. Overall, I tried to focus the paper much more on a rhetorical analysis of the film instead of my own opinions on the issue (those can come in Inquiry Three!). Waiting for “Superman” Waiting for “Superman” examines one of the most heated debates in today’s political society: the question of what...
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...Sobia Chaudhry Deb Williamson English 1113 February 16, 2012 Analysis Essay “Waiting for Superman” The importance and value of public education has declined over a period of decades in the United States of America. It portrays this concept in the documentary “Waiting for Superman” that the failing of schools is getting worse. The reformers of public education are not making much of an effort on this failing educational system. The movie explains public education system is about keeping the teachers unions happy, and having them line their own pockets at the expense of our children’s education. Charter schools being the hot spot where motivated parents are trying to send their children, however there is a limited space and a lot of applicants, the children are placed in the hands of luck. The American Federation of Teachers has been the most powerful and active teachers union. The teachers of today are a lot different from the teachers of the past decade. Today most teachers are unmotivated educators who have quit doing their job precisely. Teachers unions have guaranteed a life time job security to teachers. It doesn’t matter if you are resulting in high test scores in your classroom or low ones. It has become close to impossible to fire an underserving teacher due to tenure. Tenure was first brought up in Universities protecting professors from being fired for non-educational reasons. This has carried on to public schools. Teachers are to teach a certain number of years...
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...Film Analysis: Waiting For Superman Essay In the film Waiting for Superman, the filmmakers investigate schools where there are low expectations of student achievement. Some of the social factors seen in the film that contribute to non-functioning educational environments are Income, school location, neighborhood.. It seems that families in poverty or with low incomes are not interested in learning. They feel like they have been hit with the short end of the stick. The schools are generally over crowded with few good teachers. When there's a great public school there is not enough space for every child in the neighborhood. Children are stuck in low achieving schools because of how the school districts are divided. A lot of children end up in poor public schools because their parents do not possess the income that it takes to send them to a private school. Since 1971 education cost has increased from $4,300 to more than $9,000 per student. As seen in Bianca's case, her mother cannot afford to pay for her tuition and Daisy's father is unemployed. These kids are forced into "bad education." Some students do not have any aspirations. They live in a neighborhood full of crime therefore their main focus is survival instead of learning. Minority kids between 5th and 7th grade go from being B students to D students. As they get older their grades drop so they feel like they are not going anywhere. Sixty eight percent of inmates in Pennsylvania are high school dropouts. The average inmates...
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...________________________________________________________________________ Waiting for Balance: A Review of Waiting for Superman Directed by Davis Guggenheim Paramount Vantage and Participant Media, 2010. Approximately 90 minutes. ________________________________________________________________________ Reviewed by Joseph Flynn, Northern Illinois University Introduction Waiting for Superman is the latest documentary by the Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim. Guggenheim also directed An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore documentary about climate change and global warming. What made An Inconvenient Truth such a masterwork was that it presented stark and incontrovertible information about the destruction of our environment and further challenged the viewers to do something about it. Waiting for Superman follows a similar formula. It presents the viewer with an incredible amount of troubling information about our public schools and models of seemingly progressive advocates for change. The data represented is also properly cited on-screen, differentiating it from personal polemics like Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9-11. It concludes with a challenge to act for the best interests of our nation’s youths; the end credits include a web site where viewers can go for ideas. That makes it difficult to speak negatively about the film, but upon a closer analysis we find that most of the information presented in the film is over-generalized and highly debatable...
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...Robby Hammers November 16, 2011 Sociology 201 Sissa Harris Waiting for Superman The film “Waiting for Superman” illustrates various problems that we have in our public education system. The film follows several children on their quest to get accepted by different schools because if they continue down the path of public school they will fall behind and are far more likely to drop out. Problems in Education: One major problem that the film addresses quite thoroughly is the problem with school funding. Schools receive money from the state, and they are also funded by tax money from citizens who live in the communities. Typically in a neighborhood where the average home price is relatively high the school will often receive and spend more money per student than a school in a poor community. A school in a rich neighborhood will more often than not have newer and higher quality learning materials than a school in a low income community. This difference in income has a huge impact on the education students receive. For example, a “school in a poor neighborhood may be rundown, lack library and science facilities, have crowded classrooms, and be staffed with poorly trained teachers” (Macionis 350). In the film, they called these schools names such as “dropout factories” and “academic sinkholes”. The children in the movie were forced to attend these schools which put them at a huge disadvantage compared to kids who were able to attend a private school or even a decent public school...
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...Rhetorical Analysis of Waiting for “Superman” The movie Waiting for “Superman” is conducted in an effective and efficient manner which gave supported facts throughout the film. This documentary follows Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily who are all from different families, in different areas, and shows what they must go through in hopes for a better education. In addition to following each child, the viewer will see how some kids must got through what’s called “The lottery” in order to be admitted into a school of higher education. The director of the film, Davis Guggenheim, argues that America’s schools are in desperate need of attention in order to improve our education system. Guggenheim supports this with the use of logos, ethos, pathos, and visual rhetoric throughout the film. Guggenheim uses logos in conjunction with juxtaposition to provide a fine argument over the fact that America’s public school system is significantly failing in numerous areas. Guggenheim supports this argument with numerous statistics throughout the film. One statistic given is “when students in America were tested in reading, most scored between 20-35% of grade level” (Guggenheim). With that stat alone, Guggenheim really puts into perspective how bad students are lacking general proficiencies in school. Another given fact is the amount the United Sates spends to send a someone to prison for 4 years, vs a student to private school for 13 years. “The cost for one prisoner is approximately...
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...Introduction The article Charter Schools vs. Public Schools: Which One is Under Performing takes a closer look at the realities of the charter versus public school debate. In some cities, such as Manhattan, the District of Columbia and parts of Los Angeles, charter schools are a necessary option for parents that cannot afford private schools but want a better education for their children than what the public school system can provide, according to the big screen documentary “Waiting for Superman” written and directed by Davis Guggenheim. This particular article focuses on charter schools as a whole and looks at the entire country. In the article, arguments are shown for both the charter school side and public school side of the argument. Unfortunately, very little factual data is given to support the opinions given. Demographic information, test data and other various factors used to measure performance are mentioned yet not supported, leaving the reader to wonder what is really true. Analysis of Article The author used three various sources, US News and World Report, Stanford, and one non-profit organization, Change.org. The sources used by the author do make the article seem very reliable. Both sides of the argument are represented in an unbiased way, but not many statistical facts are used to support the arguments. The article would seem more credible if actual statistics were used. Since there were no statistics stated, the validity of the article...
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...MODERN BRITISH LITERATURE (c. 1900 to 1950) READING LIST Please note that there are two lists below. The first is the full list with the core readings in bold; the second is the core list separated out. You are responsible for all core readings and may incorporate readings from the full list into your tailored list. Unless otherwise noted, selections separated by commas indicate all works students should know. A. FICTION Beckett, Samuel. One of the following: Murphy, Watt, Molloy Bennett, Arnold. Clayhanger Bowen, Elizabeth. The Heat of the Day Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh Chesterton, G.K. The Man Who Was Thursday Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness AND one of: Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes Ford, Ford Madox. The Good Soldier Forster, E. M. Howards End, A Passage to India (plus the essays “What I Believe” and “The Challenge of Our Times” in Two Cheers for Democracy) Galsworthy, John. The Man of Property Greene, Graham. One of: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World Joyce, James. Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses Kipling, Rudyard. Kim Lawrence, D. H. Two of: Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, The Rainbow, The Plumed Serpent Lewis, Wyndham. Tarr, manifestos in BLAST 1 Mansfield, Katherine. “Prelude,” “At the Bay,” “The Garden Party,” “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” (in Collected Stories) Orwell, George. 1984 (or Aldous Huxley, Brave New World) Wells, H. G. One of the...
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...INTRODUCTION The plays and prefaces of Bernard Shaw deal with many and diverse themes. At least four, however, concern themselves with evolutionary themes and ideas: Man and Superman, Back to Methusalah, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, and Far-fetched Fables. In Man and Superman, especially the third act, the preface, and The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion, Shaw touches on two main themes: the pursuit of man by woman and the direction of evolution, which Shaw sees as leading towards the development of the mind and brain. In Back to Methusalah, Shaw carries forward his vision of evolution as proceeding in the direction of mental development but introduces a seemingly new idea in the last play of the cycle, the antithesis of mind and body. Shaw's dualism receives its most explicit statement in the last play of the cycle although there may be indications of it in the earlier plays. The mind-body antithesis, however, derives as a philosophical problem from Descartes,1 although the antithesis also appeared in the Manichean and Gnostic heresies, the spirit, or mind, being regarded as good and the body as evil. Although the antithesis of body and mind makes its first open appearance in the Methusalah cycle, it is present, at least as an implicit assumption in Man and Superman. Don Juan continually expresses his longing for the life of contemplation, a life which is to be achieved at the expense of the body. We will deal with the presence of the mind body antithesis...
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...people would not have made any evolutionary progress without the guidance of a higher figure over them. From Jesus to Alexander the Great to George Washington to even Adolf Hitler, the world has been filled with surprising… yet amazing leaders. One thing that has been of analysis lately, though, was if nobility plays a role in becoming an effective leader and to what extent does personal responsibility extend to the welfare of others. After analyzing fictional superiors it has become clear that everyone has their own “perfect way” of heading a group. It is known that everyone has done questionable things, but what type of role does it play when it’s while inspiring people that need motivation and...
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...Salman Rushdie's creation, Saleem Sinai, has a self-proclaimed "overpowering desire for form" (363). In writing his own autobiography Saleem seems to be after what Frank Kermode says every writer is a after: concordance. Concordance would allow Saleem to bring meaning to moments in the "middest" by elucidating (or creating) their coherence with moments in the past and future. While Kermode talks about providing this order primarily through an "imaginatively predicted future" (8), Saleem approaches the project by ordering everything in his past into neat, causal relationships, with each event a result of what preceded it. While he is frequently skeptical of the true order of the past, he never doubts its eminence; he is certain that everyone is "handcuffed to history" (482). His belief in the preeminence of the past, though, is distinctly different than the reality of time for the Saleem who emerges through that part of the novel that Gerard Genette calls "the event that consists of someone recounting something" (26) (Saleem-now, we can call this figure). Saleem-now is motivated to act not by the past, but instead by the uncertainty and ambiguity of the future. Saleem's construction of his own story is an effort to mitigate the lack of control he feels in looking toward the unknown future. To pacify himself he creates a world that is ordered but this world is contrary to his own reality. Saleem spends much of his energy in the story setting up neat causal relationships between...
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