Waiting For Superman was a documentary that highlighted the failures of the public education system and the problems it is causing for students in these inter-city school districts. It did a great job getting testimonies from teachers at these schools and students who went to these schools. However, it failed to examine the reasons these schools fail and why students from low income families and neighborhoods drop out of school.
The documentary showed brief clips of politicians speaking out about the system failing children and the need to fix it. The documentary did not explore why test scores are so low or why children in inter-city schools are failing. The majority of children attending inter-city public school are from low income families. Some live below the poverty limit. Many children attend school without breakfast, and don’t expect to get free or reduced-cost lunches from government programs. These benefits are not provided to all schools, however, because of cuts to welfare spending. If students don’t get breakfast or breakfast at school, they are not getting the nutrition they need to excel on the standardized tests. These test takers usually have to go to school in the morning. The Bush administration seemed to forget that good nutrition and high standardized test scores are linked. This is why many inter-city students drop out of school. They drop out when they feel they aren’t performing well at school.
The documentary did an outstanding job showing the audience what most kids live. It also explained how charter schools work and how to get into them. They also received testimony that further legitimized their point.
