Waiting for Superman

I don't get to the movies as often as I'd like to, plus I am a major documentary-phile (yes, I am a geek). So I jumped at the chance when Ellen Seidman- a wonderful new friend I met at BlogHer last summer and the author of the blog Love That Max- invited me to go see "Waiting for Superman" with her. In case you haven't already heard of it, Waiting for Superman is an extraordinary documentary by Davis Guggenheim (Academy Award-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth) that explores the current state of public education in the U.S. through the very personal, moving stories of five unforgettable children across the country. What you see is that these eager children (and their hardworking parents) are being failed by a system that includes tenured teachers who can't be fired no matter how atrocious their conduct, "dropout factory" schools where hardly anyone graduates, and schools so overcrowded that children cry when they do not win lotteries to attend. As a New York City mom, I thought I knew all of the cliches already about how bad public school systems could be...the overcrowding (there is a waitlist for our zoned public school), the rundown buildings, and the budget cuts. But I didn't realize just how bad it really was, or the various forces that fight each other and keep the system from getting fixed. If you have any interest in public education at all (and as a parent reading this blog, I assume that is, well, pretty much all of you), I urge you to watch this stirring film and then to take action to help these kids. Also, please read Ellen's excellent post about the documentary as well.


K12.com- a leader in nationwide online education for grades K-12- provided Ellen and me tickets to see Waiting for Superman free of charge. Learn more about K12.com by visiting its Facebook, Twitter, or blog pages.