I was very interested to see Waiting for Superman because I had heard so much controversy surrounding it and wanted to see what was up. I was glad I had read a lot of criticisms before seeing the film, along with reading Shor's article, because the rhetoric involved in this movie is quite remarkable. Most of the people I have talked to who have seen the movie and are not educators and do not know much about the true workings of public education are shocked and appalled at the films message and were fully in support of privatizing all education. Without knowing much more than the film showed, this is a very appropriate reaction. However, I do not believe privatization is the key to education reform.
Education cannot become a business; they are already so politically charged, it has stopped being about educating kids and started to be run in a way that is most beneficial to adults. Kids have already had so much taken away from them for adult benefit (cue media, tv, etc), we cannot take their education too. I agree with Shor in his stance that holding these lottery systems is a superb way to divide communities into the haves and have nots. It is devastating that the future of some kids relies on drawing a name out of a hat. I think it is deplorable to imply that a good and decent public education is not possible for students, and privatization is our better/only alternative.
I am not saying that charter schools are entirely bad, they very obviously give great opportunities to those who are lucky enough to win the lottery. The problem is that all students are not being served in a fair way. It is my belief that progress in the public school domain can ACTUALLY be made, with the right resources, well trained teachers and involved parents. Good education DOES happen, it is just a matter of finding models that work well for individual schools. Why can we not take the model of some charter schools and apply them to public schools? There are a lot of options apart from charter schools, and I believe they should be attempted before we resort to privatization. You see, the thing with education reform is that people actually must TRY to reform PUBLIC education before there can be any progress.
I like what you're saying and I agree with your stances. Like you a lot of my friends who aren't education majors were appalled but were educated about this so it wasnt such a slap to the face per say. YOu made good points, thanks.
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