Sundance 2010 winner, Waiting for "Superman," is a 2010 documentary film showcasing the real stories of kids in public schools who struggle to earn their promised education. The film follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth. Director Davis Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems. The film analyzes the failures of the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into a charter school.
Very powerful and eye-opening. Below is the trailer. (Film is available for purchase or rental).
"Finding Superman" is a collection of easy-to-understand essays written in response to the documentary "Waiting for Superman."
''This book is an essential supplement for everyone who saw the movie Waiting
for Superman. It makes clear that education improvement is more complex, and
requires more change in policy and practice, than Superman ever envisioned. It
is a roadmap for more comprehensive transformation of
education.''
--Michael W. Kirst, Emeritus Professor of Education,
Stanford University
''No one who hopes to participant in and
contribute to the contemporary conversation about better teachers, better
schools, and better learning for students can afford to pass up this collection.
It is a book for educators, but more than that it is a book for all who care
about our young people and our nation's tomorrow.''
--Stephen Joel
Trachtenberg, President Emeritus, The George Washington University and
university professor of public service