I arrived so early to the newly released and highly touted documentary “Waiting for Superman” the ushers asked me to wait outside the theater so they could clean up from the previous show. I have been waiting for someone or something to wake up the nation to the grim condition of public education in this country, so despite the fact that it was created by Davis Guggenheim of An Inconvenient Truth fame, I rushed to see the movie as soon as it hit theaters in Atlanta. While the film does reveal some desperate conditions in the system and also shines some light on some of the more misunderstood details of the problem, it does little to propose solutions and completely ignores the one thing that can ultimately save our schools, exceptional teachers.
Guggenheim unabashedly admits from the outset that he was compelled to make the film because he drives past public schools every day on his way to drop off his own kids to an exclusive and expensive private school. As a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat who supports public education, he wanted to know why the schools in his city were so bad. Maybe President Obama wonders the same thing every morning that he sends his kids to Sidwell Friends.
