Early responses to the controversial “Waiting for Superman”

The Teacher’s College of Columbia University held a screening of the controversial documentary, Waiting for Superman, in a packed Joyce Berger Cowin Conference auditorium on September 24.  After the feature ended, a panel discussion involving some of the College’s prestigious faculty members was held to discuss reactions to the film.

 Waiting for Superman portrays the struggle facing parents trying to enroll their children in the charter schools of some of the largest cities in the United States.  The documentary follows the individual stories of five families living in Harlem, Los Angeles, the Bronx, Palo Alto and Washington, D.C.  The film puts forth the suggestion that public schools in these areas are so substandard, that the charter schools are their last hope for their children’s future success.

The film, which arrives in theaters this Friday, has been called “a call to arms” for education reform while others harshly criticize its too simplified idealism.  While documentary showcases some of the problems of the American public school system, panel members of the Teachers College of Columbia argued that information presented remained too general and that the results of supplied studies, while informative, did not present real solutions.  One such study validated the belief that having “highly-effective” teachers in the classroom greatly increased test scores.  Unfortunately, a teacher is not known to be “highly-effective” until after a number of years. 

Other criticism of the film stems from its entirely negative portrayal of teacher unions.  While there have been cases of the unions protecting the jobs of poor teachers, the larger percentage of adequate teachers are also protected.