Documentary Recommend: Waiting For Superman

I don’t know who most of the readers of this blog are, but I suspect that few have gone to a U.S. public school or have sent/are sending their kids there. Still, it’s important to be aware of the sobering reality of our public school system, particularly how it fails minorities and those without decent financial resources. These people—the ones strapped in this morass of failure from which it is exceedingly difficult to climb out of—are our neighbors, our fellow passengers on the trains, our checkout cashiers, our deliverymen. They are also the ones we’re terrified of. The ones who burglarize our homes, taunt our kids in their schoolyards, even occasionally beat us to the point of needing hospitalization. To understand their reality, it is worthwhile to check out David Guggenheim’s documentary, Waiting for Superman. It may not make us less terrified, but it will at least give us some insight. And it may possibly help dispel bigotry and hatred and narrow-mindedness.

Guggenheim cleverly uses what I called the “six million and one technique.” This technique is the practice of referring to the number of Jews killed by the Nazis as “six million and one,” because when “six million” is repeated enough times, the atrocity of the fact loses its impact. Six million becomes a mere generic number, a trite expression that is like white noise: constantly in the background, but not affecting us. When you add the “one,” however, it becomes about individuals, that one little child who was murdered, that one teenager about to get married, that one mother expecting her first child, or that one father of six. In Waiting for Superman, Guggenheim follows five children and their families, pulling us into their lives and tugging at our emotions while doing so. By making the American school problem individualistic—these sweet five kids!—he succeeds in what appears to be his goal: making us furious and possibly (hopefully!) propelling us to action. The last line of Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation—a book about public school segregation (which I also highly recommend)—is, “You cannot give it up. We cannot give it up. As a nation, as a people, I don’t think that we have any choice but to reject this acquiescence, to reject defeat.” This, I believe, is what Guggenheim is hoping will be the reaction to his film.

Check it out!