I rented the documentary on the US school system "Waiting for Superman" on netflix a few weeks ago. My plan was to invite some friends over from my TE class but never found a good time. Tonight I finally broke down and watched it when I got back from work. I watched it with my roommate Dan and his girlfriend Aimee (who is also an elementary education major.) If you haven't heard of the movie if shows the story of like 5 families that have to enter a lottery in the hopes of getting their children into a good school.
It was the first movie that my eyes kind of welled up since I saw Air Bud like 10 years ago. You know the scene where he has go get rid of him and says, "Go away! I don't want you anymore!" He totally did, but that's beside the point. It was just so sad that basically the only way these kids will get a good education is if they win the lottery to get into one of the very few good schools in their district. Most of the lotteries were like 800 applicants and 20 openings.
One of the biggest points I took away from it is the problem with ineffective teachers. The movie claimed that after a teacher has tenure it is basically impossible to fire them. So there are all these crappy teachers out there but there is no way to fire them. Obviously this movie only presents one side of the argument, but the side it presents is a pretty strong one.
I encourage you all to watch it and then we can discuss it next time I see you.
Ben, I've been meaning to watch that movie, and after your review of it, I'm sure I will. Have you been following the events in Wisconsin where the Govenor has signed into law that collective bargaining by the teachers' union in that state will no longer be allowed? It's fascinating to me, because I've always thought that teacher tenure was really harming our kids....
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