Waiting for 'Superman'
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 1.5
Well-intentioned but severely misguided glance at America's broken education system, which tries - in the hands of C-student Guggenheim - to make children look like idyllic dreamers yearning for information, adults appear deeply concerned for their children's futures and teachers (and teachers' unions) seem to be check-cashing slugs ... in other words, Bizarro World. If only things were so very simple: much of this documentary comes across as ignorant liberal bait, cleverly avoiding obvious facts such as: America can be an essentially anti-intellectual society (occasionally showing 'suspicion' of intelligence), children aren't pushed hard enough to learn and focus by their parents, parents can be aloof and non-supportive, crime rates in schools is astronomical, administrators handcuff teachers, No Child Left Behind is a joke, etcetera. I could write a book or two about teaching ... but why bother? I'd rather wait for Batman....
