BRZEZINSKI: What happens to these kids? "Waiting for Superman" ( Superman & Lois), an episode of Superman & Lois. Thanks to all of our guests. "[20], The film also received negative criticism. [2] The film criticizes the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into competitive charter schools such as KIPP LA Schools, Harlem Success Academy and Summit Preparatory Charter High School. "[18] Kyle Smith, for the New York Post, gave the film 4.5 stars, calling it an "invaluable learning experience. SCARBOROUGH: Right. RHEE: Yes, that's right. SCARBOROUGH: Right. She said Washington, D.C. even on its best day, wasn't like New York City on its worst day. I get to meet all the wonderful teachers out there. /ArtBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] LESTE BELL, DAISYS TEACHER: She chose her college and she wrote a letter to the admissions and asking them to allow her to attend their college. Randi was talking about instead of focusing on bad teachers, focusing on good teachers. Davis, god bless you. That means politically get involved. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] I knew -- as Davis said, I knew what was going to happen before she knew what was going to happen. So they were trying to impose a cap on the number of charter schools that could be had in New York. Throughout the documentary, different aspects of the American public education system are examined. But I think it's quite frankly a little disingenuous for the union president to stand up and say we liked what Michelle was doing, we wanted it to continue to happen, when the national AFT poured $1 million into the campaign in Washington, D.C. a million dollars in a local mayoral race you know clearly sends a message that they didn't want things to continue as they were. Everyone in this room is feeling something powerful tonight. >> I like to follow the evidence. As young as Bianca is, she too displays this look of defeat as her name is not called (Guggenheim 1:32:56). Documentary. Because I know he's easily influenced to do things he shouldn't do. People -- but this room needs to get bigger. Teachers in this country want to make a difference in the lives of kids. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools (the district with some of the worst-performing students at the time), is shown attempting to take on the union agreements that teachers are bound to, but suffers a backlash from the unions and the teachers themselves. I've been amazed by what's possible. 7 0 obj RHEE: It was actually 12 percent that were proficient in reading but he picked the better statistic because actually, only 8 percent of our children were proficient in math. We need to do a lot more of what Debbie Kenny is doing in that school but we need to do whats going on in lots and lots and lots of public schools because at the end of the day, every single teacher I know wants to make a difference in the lives of kids. CANADA: Sure. It's about figuring out what works in charter schools and exporting that across America. Because politically, these -- the things that we were doing, closing down schools, firing teachers, moving principals, those were not politically popular things to do. I actually don't -- I think we could continue one city at a time. Don't make -- Im tired, man, I wake up at 3:30 in the morning. "[14] Geraldo Rivera praised the film for promoting discussion of educational issues. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lets get started. BRZEZINSKI: Its very hard to watch this movie. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems. endobj It affects good teachers, too. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The film shows how the audience members, filled with prospective students and their families, all sit with apprehensive looks on their faces as they anxiously listen to the names and numbers of the children who are called and are therefore accepted into the charter school by luck of the draw. Where you tried to focus on good teachers in Washington. First of all, can we start by, we want to thank you for coming here. /Type /Page Though money doubled, reading and math scores have flat-lined. DEBORAH KENNY, HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMY: Well its what we're doing and a lot of the schools around the country are doing when they're given the freedom, which is what the charter gives you to accomplish these results. What were your thoughts when the number did not come up? And the city of Indianapolis said you're the most effective ninth grade reading teacher in our city and we're going to give you a great reward, five days later they had to fire her because the contract said she's the youngest teacher and she has to go Now, there's no one -- bad person in the process. We decreased violent crimes that were happening in the schools. BRZEZINSKI: Thank you. So people keep talking about accountability just in terms of firing teachers but what I think people need to understand is how accountability allows you to unleash teacher passion by setting on fire all the teachers in the school because you're allowed to give them the freedom to teach the way they see fit. We have to go to break. According to Waiting for Superman, from 1971 to today, America has gone from spending an average of $4,300 per student to $9,000 per student, (adjusting for inflation). You don't have all sorts of external rules. We're turning to you now. SCARBOROUGH: Geoffrey Canada, some remarkable things are happening in Harlem. Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. /Rotate 0 /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Waiting for 'Superman' the title refers to a Harlem educators childhood belief that a superhero would fix the problems of the ghetto won an Audience Award at CANADA: Can I just tell you this? SCARBOROUGH: OK. You talked about it. They want to know what good teaching looks like and they want to emulate it. RHEE: You know what, heres the thing. The contract says she has to go. "[7] On Metacritic it has a score of 81% based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". We need to have great curriculum. It's must-see TV. You said OK we're not going to penalize bad teachers. I get why that's good for the adults. You could fail those kids for another 20 years, everybody keeps their job, nobody gets the go. And that's something that no parent wants their child to ever be a witness or to hear when they're going to school. There's a complete and utter lack of accountability for the job that we're supposed to be doing, which is producing results for kids. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] I've never seen anything like it in my life. The answer is we need great public education for all of our schools. There are people who have figured out systems of improving education and the mayor was very aggressive in bringing those folk into New York City and saying to them, we're going to remove the obstacles for you all to do your work. How do we spread that from Harlem across America? SCARBOROUGH: The reformer. The filmmakers made sure to film how Nakia becomes increasingly more anxious and concerned as time passes during the lottery, but fewer spots become available and her daughters name has not been called (Guggenheim 1:32:49). There are answers and people want to say the answer is this. Yes, first or second grade skills. ]o m P:giwgRG+g;)Y 'J[+AH@f6=D.Ga5&0RL[?Xt6MU*/-waUN This is about the kids in the movie, and this is about how those of us on this stage help kids. /T1_1 24 0 R ", "Film's anguished lesson on why schools are failing", "Protesting teachers give 'Waiting for Superman' an 'F', "Catching up with WAITING FOR SUPERMAN's Davis Guggenheim", "At the Critics' Choice Awards: Winners Are Social Network, Inception, Firth, Portman, Leo, Bale | Thompson on Hollywood", An Inconvenient Superman: Davis Guggenheim's New Film Hijacks School Reform, "Michelle Rhee's Cheating Scandal: Diane Ravitch Blasts Education Reform Star", "Waiting for Superman" star on cheating scandals, Eager for Spotlight, but Not if It Is on a Testing Scandal, FRONTLINE: The Education of Michelle Rhee, "NYC teachers counter 'Waiting for Superman' with film of their own", "Waiting For "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools", Critics Say Documentary Unfairly Targets Teachers Unions and Promotes Charter Schools, Black Reel Award for Outstanding Documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Documentary Feature, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Film, Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Feature, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Producers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Motion Picture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waiting_for_%22Superman%22&oldid=1118430069, Documentary films about American politics, Documentary films about education in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 October 2022, at 00:08. Waiting for Superman, a documentary about the mediocre public school system in the U.S., uses both techniques to great effect. The film follows several families as they attempt to gain access to prominent charter schools for their children. /GS0 18 0 R Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. If I don't, Ill just be with my friends. John leads the show me campaign which is dedicated to raising awareness and highlighting successful schools. E]D[JWlwH{,j73?Mazd. That was teachers talking to each other and talking to the world about what teachers needed. I'd like to follow up by asking you, that on "MEET THE PRESS" this morning, you said the union has taken steps to make teachers better, taken concrete steps. These are your schools, your communities. That's what our union has been trying to do for the last two years. This is a transcript of "Waiting for Superman". SCARBOROUGH: Right. WebFILM SUMMARY With passion and urgency, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN advocates for the educational welfare of Americas children in a public school system that is severely When they hear this back and forth, there's the sense of like, you know what, put my head in the sand, take care of my own kids because this debate has been going on for generations. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon wrote a negative review of the film, writing that while there's "a great deal that's appealing," there's also "as much in this movie that is downright baffling. WEINGARTEN: Theres nothing wrong with what Geoffrey just said. But we need to have real evaluation systems, which is what the union has been focused on, so that teachers are really judged fairly. WebTRANSCRIPT: WAITING FOR SUPERMAN PANEL DISCUSSION WITH: NBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH; NBC'S MIKA BRZEZINSKI;DAVIS GUGGENHEIM, DIRECTOR, But Id like -- I think there is a disconnect here that John Legend talks about. /MC0 37 0 R RHEE: I do. /Parent 1 0 R She was assigned in January. It's about places that have failed for 30, 40, 50 years, we can't do the same thing this year that we did last year. The issue is about how we create the best environment for kids. /Properties << What if I made a movie that gets people to care about other peoples children and fight for other people's children as much I fight for mine. WEINGARTEN: Theres lots of -- look. The union itself has instead of focusing on good teachers and how we need to help them, give them the tools and conditions, we have always focused on, you know, the due process protections. The movie's major villains are the National What's going on here? NAKIA: I was disturbed. In New York City, a group of local teachers protested one of the documentary's showings, calling the film "complete nonsense", writing that "there is no teacher voice in the film. You tried to change things and chances are good, because of it, you're going to get fired. BRZEZINSKI: How old is she? It just came out this week. How do we let every kid -- SCARBOROUGH: There are two Americas. SCARBOROUGH: All right. I think the question about whether school reform can continue at as an aggressive rate under him is whether hes going to be able to stand up to the fact that SCARBOROUGH: Let me ask you this Michelle. Are you feeling agreement? /MC0 62 0 R I mean, from my perspective, it really seemed like what was scary to people was this idea of beginning to differentiate folks. SCARBOROUGH: Okay. /Properties << If I have kids, I don't want kids to be in this environment. So it's important to understand how this is locked down here in D.C. and in New York. WebShop for waiting for superman documentary transcript filetype:lua at Best Buy. /Font << They do allow us to figure out what's working and we should replicate it and what's not and we should close those charter schools that arent working so that we actually develop a science in our business about what works in what kinds of environments and in what kinds of communities. I mean, not all teachers are created equal. We have to take ownership. In some ways when we fought for sources for kids like my union did, we were fighting to help kids get what they needed. I think that we've all I mean Davis said it when he said he passed three public schools. And what we're finding in some schools we should spread throughout all the schools in this nation. When I see from my own experience as a school teach are for six years when evaluations didn't work and less than 20 percent of them think that evaluations work right now. Geoffrey Canada has done it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daisys path to medical school begins with eighth grade algebra which she'll need to take when she moves up to Stevenson Middle School. SCARBOROUGH: Davis? /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] [31] Ravitch served as a board member with the NAEP and says that "the NAEP doesn't measure performance in terms of grade-level achievement," as claimed in the film, but only as "advanced," "proficient," and "basic." You fought the law and the law won. We're seeing all this great success in Harlem, there were forces that were trying to make sure that that couldn't be replicated on a larger scale. And when you say that, people say you're attacking teachers. This isn't some Hollywood drama or a romance flick. << 57 percent of Daisys classmates won't graduate. Now it's happening in Houston. SCARBOROUGH: Because we've been up to Harlem, we've seen what's happening up there. Were going to talk to in a second and thats where Jeff Zucker told me I needed to go. This film follows five children and documents them to see what their lives and schools are like. Its so interesting you say that because Mika, Chris, our EP, myself, everybody thats seen this movie says first of all, they break down and cry at the end of this movie and then when they go home and they look at their children, children who can go to really great schools, they look at their own children differently. Film. >> BRZEZINSKI: When the results came down, we watched you respond, we watched her respond. /Font << But it's also frustrating when you know what's possible can't be replicated because there are barriers in the way. /MC0 28 0 R Things such as the ease in which a public school teacher achieves tenure, the inability to fire a teacher who is tenured, and how the system attempts to reprimand poorly performing teachers are shown to affect the educational environment. >> /BleedBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] It took a little while to get the money straightened for this green light and 80 percent of the teachers voted for that agreement. Eighth graders at Kipp L.A. Prep get triple the classroom time in math and science. When you put a face on this issue, as we talk about the details of it, that's the thing I keep saying to myself, let's not forget as we argue and discuss and learn about this, let's not forget the kids. So we're going to differentiate and we're going to recognize and reward the highest performing teachers and we're going to look at the lowest performing teachers and we're going to remove them from the system. She was a teacher in Indianapolis. The answer is no. And I think seeing what's possible in this film is very inspiring. Why did you pick this topic? During its opening weekend in New York City and Los Angeles, the film grossed $141,000 in four theaters, averaging $35,250 per theater. 3 0 obj SCARBOROUGH: Last in, first out. WEINGARTEN: Yes. Ultimately they want the tools and conditions in order to do that. SCARBOROUGH: No doubt about it. I'm feeling it. /Type /Page Nakia joins us here tonight. Geoffrey Canada. 4,789 Views. I think what's happened in places like Washington and I saw it compared to New York City. SCARBOROUGH: Okay, Michelle -- WEINGARTEN: We agreed at times. [17] The Wall Street Journal's William McGurn praised the film in an op-ed piece, calling it a "stunning liberal expos of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools. ?zBzD%YC1_PVu,fkGsM'2Hnm^]6_1W|qpff&,+y cWoM~UNxa*_EE}=}z/P__~:Y)z `'4Q!-ccE"?6HD6JW (b]Jl BP> Randi we'll let you get a response in here and also, Mika, what we're going to do is figure out where everybody agrees. I think that teachers are not the problem, they are the solution to the problems that we face. Somebody who's fighting for kids like Daisy is John Legend. Because you would think that the parents of those children that Michelle was in there shaking up the system to save those children, if those parents would have rallied, but we have gotten so used to failure, we tolerate failure in places like D.C. and central Harlem and Detroit, we just tolerate that failure and we've got to say to this nation, no more. WEINGARTEN: John. In fact you come off quite badly. SCARBOROUGH: Crying uncontrollably because it is unbelievable, some of the conditions that our kids are forced to learn in right now. ANTHONY: I stayed back one grade. RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRES., AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Sure. "[10] Joe Morgenstern, writing for The Wall Street Journal, gave the film a positive review writing, "when the future of public education is being debated with unprecedented intensity," the film "makes an invaluable addition to the debate. WebFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. /GS0 18 0 R What have you been able to do with them? << GUGGENHEIM: The issue is not just lousy teachers. The issue here in terms of education -- SCARBOROUGH: Wait. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] SCARBOROUGH: Do you think he's going to do the right thing now that the teachers union is giving him a million dollars? And what teachers have told us is that focus instead on the tools and conditions we need to do our jobs. We're in a crisis. I cry for him sometimes. They couldn't add basic first grade skills, they couldn't have it. WebShop for waiting for superman documentary transcript filetype:lua at Best Buy. WEINGARTEN: Let me -- SCARBOROUGH: If it wasn't about education, I mean, what was it about? BRZEZINSKI: Randi, really quickly. SCARBOROUGH: All right, Davis, Davis, you said at the beginning you didn't want to get involved in this project. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you think that most of the kids in D.C. are getting a crappy education right now? But as long as we try to pretend that all teachers are the same, and that there are not great teachers and not so great teachers, then we are never going to be able to solve the problems. New York City on a bad day outpaced Washington on a great day. And that means get involved. I was really tired. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vergosa, Andrew. [31] (The film says, however, that it is focusing on the one in five superior charter schools, or close to 17%, that do outperform public schools.) They were the right things for kids but they made the adults incredibly uncomfortable. You believe it. Why is that? SCARBOROUGH: You guys were great. RHEE: I'm just wondering, if the AFT was putting a million dollars into mayoral campaigns all across the country just based on who the teachers liked, I would buy that argument. "[11] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A, calling it "powerful, passionate, and potentially revolution-inducing. They said, look, this work is hard. By Stephen Holden. Fox News. And I always -- Im at screenings all across the country. This is our country. He's a Grammy award winning songwriter. /Resources << The union leaderships could take this on as a platform and say this is something we're going to commit to and give our membership behind this so we can show progress in taking on these issues. By the time she leaves Stevenson, only 13 percent of her classmates will be proficient in math. Have your mom and dad told you about the lottery? Take a look. /Parent 1 0 R Thank you so much for doing this and also sharing your story in the movie. I went up to a school up there. There's a problem with our system and who know that there are children in this country who are falling behind.