waiting for superman documentary transcript

I started to count the public schools that I was driving by. One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist, the WebGenre: Documentary Waiting for 'Superman' Screenplay Edit Buy Year: 2010 4,775 Views Geoffrey Canada: One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me We increased graduation rates. LEGEND: Well, it's been quite a learning experience because I get to meet great educators. RHEE: Heres the thing. BRZEZINSKI: If you leave Washington, D.C. are you going to Newark? /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] I like to follow the evidence. Seventy-eight percent of them, this is not our survey, this was their survey, said a union was absolutely essential to them to try and stop school politics or principal abuses. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] Mika and I want to welcome you to this special hour. If I have kids, I don't want kids to be in this environment. I know you have to say your side of this and this is hard for all of us. [3], Geoffrey Canada describes his journey as an educator and recounts the story of his devastation when, as a child, he discovers that Superman is fictional, that "there is no one coming with enough power to save us.". Didn't get an answer on that. Since many charter schools are not large enough to accept all of their applicants, the selection of students is done by lottery. This is about the kids in the movie, and this is about how those of us on this stage help kids. [8], Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "What struck me most of all was Geoffrey Canada's confidence that a charter school run on his model can make virtually any first-grader a high school graduate who's accepted to college. Why were you frightened to send her to school. WAITING,FOR,SUPERMAN,DOCUMENTARY,TRANSCRIPT We increased student achievement levels. BRZEZINSKI: Why didn't you want her to go to a regular public school in your neighborhood? And Im not going to pretend that you can just come in and snap your fingers and things are going to get better overnight. Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. So there are teachers who are having this debate within the spectrum of your organization. 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. The film shows how Geoffrey Canadas solution to this problem was to create charter schools that would give children and their parents more options within the public school system and would hopefully raise academic performance, decrease dropout rates, andincrease the number of students who attend college. This scene is an important one because it highlights how the acceptance of students into charter schools is determined by the luck of the draw and how some students are not able to enter into the public school of their choice solely because luck was not on their side. By the end of the year she only had half a year of teaching. BRZEZINSKI: What are you saying, Randi, what is he saying? And we have to have everyone, even parents, recommitted, you know, even school officials, district heads, superintendents, unions, all of us have to move off a position of self-interest like I do with my own kids, sending them to private school, like the unions do, I think, preserving the status quo. Let's give five extra hours for all the teachers in America to help kids right now and have the unions lead this charge of saying this is an emergency, we need to help these kids. Throughout the documentary, different aspects of the American public education system are examined. But I do think though Davis even though we may disagree there wasn't a public school or a public school teacher that was pictured in this film, people have done amazing jobs. Take a look. There was, as Geoff said, a sense that failure was tolerable, as opposed to a focus on success. 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. /Parent 1 0 R I know they are. The second thing is, I think the frustrating thing to me about panels like this, when we get going we have to stop. Davis, god bless you. /GS1 17 0 R One of these amazing children is a boy named Anthony. endobj These are your schools, your communities. /Font << << /Properties << /Properties << That's amazing. I actually don't -- I think we could continue one city at a time. SCARBOROUGH: What have you learned since getting involved? This is our country. Most will go to John Phillip Souza, which the "Washington Post" called an academic sink hole. These students range in BRZEZINSKI: Randi, really quickly. Cross your fingers. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] /T1_0 52 0 R KENNY: Now studying Shakespeare, passing the regions in physics, passing the regions in chemistry, 100 percent in U.S. history across the board, all of them are going to go to college. >> The video explores several of the problems within the system, and tells the personal stories of several families and communities who have been impacted and disadvantaged by the broken education system. National Assessment of Educational Progress, Bill Gates Goes to Sundance, Offers an Education, "How Davis Guggenheim's Documentary 'Waiting for "Superman"' Will Further Fuel the Education Debate -- New York Magazine - Nymag", "Waiting for Superman Movie Reviews, Pictures", "How did 'Waiting for 'Superman's' ' Davis Guggenheim become the right wing's favorite liberal filmmaker? SCARBOROUGH: If she's given the chance. /Pages 1 0 R American schools face frequent budget cuts, but its not all about the money. The goal of the film is to create a successful public education system filled with great schoolsthat leave no child behind, andit calls for reform from all of usin order to reach that goal. Do you think it has characterized you fairly? Because we talked to Randi before. SCARBOROUGH: Davis, let's begin with you. Having made a film on the subject in 1999, documentary filmmaker. More importantly than our union, the new mayor is committed to it. >> Were going to talk to in a second and thats where Jeff Zucker told me I needed to go. [1], The film has earned both praise and negative criticism from commentators, reformers, and educators. Yes, there should be fairness. Are you feeling agreement? I knew -- as Davis said, I knew what was going to happen before she knew what was going to happen. /Rotate 0 SCARBOROUGH: Geoffrey Canada, some remarkable things are happening in Harlem. We can run the school the way we want, which is to give our teachers the power to teach. SCARBOROUGH: It really is. Education in Waiting for Superman Documentary UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next year, Anthonys class will move up to junior high. And it's more about a jobs program than it is about the kids. Ravitch also writes that many charter schools are involved in "unsavory real estate deals" [31], In 2011, many news media reported on a testing score "cheating scandal" at Rhee's schools, because the test answer sheets contained a suspiciously high number of erasures that changed wrong answers to right answers. /Length 868 He wrote "Shine," the theme song for "Waiting For Superman." /Type /Page Towards the end of the film, there is a segment that illustrates the charter school lottery as it takes place for different schools. Teachers in this country want to make a difference in the lives of kids. SCARBOROUGH: Do you think he's going to do the right thing now that the teachers union is giving him a million dollars? You cannot say -- you can't say, well, the problem with charter schools is they only serve some of the kids when in fact you are advocating for caps on those effective charter schools. Waiting for Superman.2010. Feb 22, 2013. But we need to have real evaluation systems, which is what the union has been focused on, so that teachers are really judged fairly. SCARBOROUGH: Last in, first out. BRZEZINSKI: On Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. from this very stage, General Colin Powell and his wife on "MORNING JOE." I get why that's good for the adults. These high-performing charters are going in and they're reaching every kid and they're sending 90 percent of their kids to college. SCARBOROUGH: I tell you what, that was the part of the movie where Daisy, you saw her crossing her fingers and write physically got nauseated. I think if we actually got to what constitutes a good teacher and had that kind of standard we'd all be in the same place on that and there are about 50 or 60 districts right now, I made a proposal in January about how to overhaul evaluation. WEINGARTEN: Im just -- that's why there was a cap from the early -- SCARBOROUGH: We have a lot of people that want get involved here. NAKIA: She felt it wasn't fair that other children were being picked and she was just as smart as they were and why not her. I think he actually wants to do the right thing. She was a teacher in Indianapolis. There are a couple of things leaders, in which we all are, could do. The movie's major villains are the National If I want something for her and I cant get it from there, I'm going to find an alternative. KENNY: We catch them up to basic level and we accelerate them to proficient. It's happening in D.C. /Filter /FlateDecode WEINGARTEN: Theres nothing wrong with what Geoffrey just said. "[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. [38] The documentary was directed, filmed, and edited by Julie Cavanagh, Darren Marelli, Norm Scott, Mollie Bruhn, and Lisa Donlan. 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. waiting for superman documentary transcript UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The space with the Xs is for all of the fifth grade students moving into the sixth grade for next year. You have to pull out a bingo ball and call your number. We love hard-working teachers. Thats just one of the great things that we see. By showing its audience that even charter schools close their doors to some students, which them forces these students to attendfailing public schools, the video illustrates howthere are still flaws to the American public school system and challenges that need to be addressed. RHEE: I do. schools. Charter schools are public schools, public dollars, public school children and to talk about them as if they are not public schools, I think does a disservice to that movement. You do not come off as the hero of this movie. "[23], Author and academic Rick Ayers lambasted the accuracy of the film, describing it as "a slick marketing piece full of half-truths and distortions" and criticizing its focus on standardized testing. You try to make reforms and it causes a problem. Let's do this right now and let's look at the best contract in the nation in terms of eliminating ineffective teachers and let's make that the standard across America. We're also joined by Deborah Canny of the Harlem Village Academy. /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Today is her graduation, and she's not allowed to go because do I owe some tuition. Waiting for Superman << I said I don't want to go up. The lottery in this movie is a metaphor. It just came out this week. CANADA: There are two things. Webwaiting for superman movie transcript+filetype:ppt+filetype:pdf. Waiting for Superman /Resources << The film is extremely eye-opening, showing just how bad a state most of our education systems are in. You could fail those kids for another 20 years, everybody keeps their job, nobody gets the go. The film assumes that any student below proficient is "below grade level," but this claim is not supported by the NAEP data. Yet instead of examining this critical issue objectively, the movie Waiting for "Superman" cites false statistics in their effort to scapegoat teachers, unfairly blaming them for all the failures of our urban schools. [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. We increased attendance rates. SCARBOROUGH: All right, Davis, Davis, you said at the beginning you didn't want to get involved in this project. There's a lot of people in this country that aren't feeling what we feel. 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. SCARBOROUGH: Welcome back to our education nation special on "Waiting For Superman." We spruced up -- modernized the building. DAISY: Isnt that when people play and they win money. Even during the MSNBC town hall today, there were teachers who say I don't care about tenure. This isn't some Hollywood drama or a romance flick. We're going to lose our nation. I don't care what I have to do, I don't care how many jobs I have to obtain but she will go to college. Waiting for 'Superman' (2010) | Watch Free Documentaries Online Superman Movie We'll be joined also by Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter John Legend and our friend at "MORNING JOE" as well. Yes, first or second grade skills. I just think -- SCARBOROUGH: Do you really think he wants to the right thing? But do you think Michelle Rhee was trying to improve the performance of the teachers in her district, was she trying to make the schools better? GUGGENHEIM: Whats really -- people -- when I hear this conversation, I want to bring it back to parents. (END VIDEO CLIP) BRZEZINSKI: And there are kids that don't make it. This is a documentary about our failing education system and the tears we saw in this room are about our children and how our schools are leaving them behind. And when you say that, people say you're attacking teachers. The film portrays the deep sadness that Bianca and her mother feel when Bianca is not accepted into the charter school as the two embrace one another at the end and Nakia dries her daughters tears (Guggenheim 1:37:35). LEGEND: Well, you know, there are plenty of constituencies that usually align with the union, for instance. We're going to do it with a man who made this film and some of the people who were in it. CANADA: Can I just tell you this? 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. We should let Randi respond. That's why -- SCARBOROUGH: To John's point, though -- WEINGARTEN: So we never -- SCARBOROUGH: Unions fought like hell against these successful charter schools being able to expand in New York State. DAISY: I want to go to a medical college or a veterinarian college because I really want to become a surgeon. >> 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. You can't do it with the district rules and the union contracts as they are in most districts. "[14] Geraldo Rivera praised the film for promoting discussion of educational issues. RHEE: Were not going to be able to solve the problem going one city at a time. We can't achieve equality or humanity and justice for everybody if we can't make sure that every kid gets a good education. 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. You get to the nation's capital, the nation's capital, only 16 percent of students are proficient in math. /T1_1 20 0 R 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. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] WEINGARTEN: Let me get to both of these issues, let me see if I can conflate them. Waiting for Superman (song), a 2013 song by the American rock band Daughtry. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] In some ways when we fought for sources for kids like my union did, we were fighting to help kids get what they needed. This film follows five children and documents them to see what their lives and schools are like. SCARBOROUGH: Were back with our panel, Michelle, one of the stunning parts of many stunning parts in this documentary, in this film, was when Davis showed the proficiency numbers state by state. Will they give him a million dollars for re-election if he keeps you in your position? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daisy and her parents have found one other option. Waiting for "Superman" streaming: where to watch online? RHEE: You wake up every morning and you know that 46,000 kids are counting on you. As part of lifting the cap they wanted to make sure that there was accountability for everyone. /BleedBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] CANADA: This is why I think this is such an important movie. We have to go to break. >> "[18] Kyle Smith, for the New York Post, gave the film 4.5 stars, calling it an "invaluable learning experience. So we've got to open up this issue of innovation and we've got to make sure that in those places we allow real educators to come in and redesign this thing so it works. You said, you still cry every time you see it. 1 0 obj LEGEND: Who your state senator is. SCARBOROUGH: All right. SCARBOROUGH: It was about education. Wouldn't that have been better? 8 0 obj They'll talk about this issue. The bottom line is, you cannot say that you support removing ineffective teachers when then I fire ineffective teachers and you slap me with lawsuits and you slap me with the grievances. People couldn't believe you could do it. BRZEZINSKI: What was wrong with what she was doing? /Resources << WebWaiting For Superman (871) 7.4 1 h 51 min 2010 X-Ray PG The lives of five Harlem and Bronx families in the high stakes lottery for access to New York City's best charter [16], The film has also garnered praise from a number of conservative critics. The good guys/heroes are low-income American parents, hoping to provide a good education for their children. Judith and Jose have decided to enter Daisy into the Kipp lottery. I've never seen anything like it in my life. We decreased violent crimes that were happening in the schools. >> BRZEZINSKI: All right. endobj They have to go see this movie and have smaller conversations like this. But it's not just Harlem -- if my movie, I call it, they're breaking a sound barrier. SCARBOROUGH: Not a Bush apostle. /ExtGState << That's the first thing. Waiting for "Superman" | Apple TV NAKIA: The schools in my area don't measure up as far as the reading is concerned, the math is concerned. GUGGENHEIM: The issue is not just lousy teachers. Coming up next, MSNBC's going to re-air the teacher town hall hosted by Brian Williams. Why? The site's consensus states: "Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for "Superman" is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim. SCARBOROUGH: Really quickly. How do you explain that to a child? But it's also frustrating when you know what's possible can't be replicated because there are barriers in the way. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] The most influential scene during this segment is when one of the students, Bianca, and her mother, Nakia, wait for Biancas name to be called as the lottery nears the end. /T1_0 24 0 R 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. You have to live in the district. Now it's happening in Houston. [37] It criticizes some public figures featured in Waiting for "Superman", proposes different policies to improve education in the United States and counters the position taken by Guggenheim. You believe it. WEINGARTEN: Michelle and I may disagree on the particulars of this, but there are about 50 or 60 districts that are using the proposal that we made and ultimately we think if we do that, if we fix teacher evaluations so it's about teacher development and evaluation, we can fix this problem. WEINGARTEN: No one, you know, teachers in at least our union would be the first to tell you, we rail against this system in some ways as much as Geoff and Michelle. /T1_0 20 0 R & CEO, HARLEM CHILDRENS ZONE: I think the real important issue for us to face as Americans is if we don't fix this, we will not remain a great country. E]D[JWlwH{,j73?Mazd. >> There are really, really bad charter schools across America. Though money doubled, reading and math scores have flat-lined. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text /ImageC ] >> I said mommy wanted you to stay in your school and she finished my sentence. [15] Deborah Kenny, CEO and founder of the Harlem Village Academies, made positive reference to the film in a The Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about education reform. BRZEZINSKI: Please help us welcome founder and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada, Washington D.C.'s school's chancellor, Michelle Rhee, American Federation of Teacher's president Randi Weingarten and filmmaker Davis Guggenheim. Waiting for Superman on iTunes >> SCARBOROUGH: Okay. SCARBOROUGH: How do we do it, Geoffrey? /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] BRZEZINSKI: Okay. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see the cages up here. ?zBzD%YC1_PVu,fkGsM'2Hnm^]6_1W|qpff&,+y cWoM~UNxa*_EE}=}z/P__~:Y)z `'4Q!-ccE"?6HD6JW (b]Jl BP> Of course, Washington has problems going back decades. Educ 300: Education Reform, Past and Present, an undergraduate course with Professor Jack Dougherty at Trinity College, Hartford CT. David GuggenheimsWaiting for Supermanlooks at how theAmerican public school system is failing its students and displays how reformers have attempted to solve this problem. It is a revolution. 6 0 obj /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] What's the big takeaway from "Waiting For Superman"? SCARBOROUGH: As far as -- well -- LEGEND: Why is there a cap? /ExtGState << Rhee said that only a small number of teachers and principals cheated. "[22] Anderson also opined that the animation clips were overused. Waiting for "Superman," Davis Guggenheim's edifying and heartbreaking new documentary, says that our future depends on good teachers and that the coddling of bad teachers by their powerful unions virtually ensures mediocrity, at best, in both teachers and the students in their care. That means politically get involved. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vergosa, Andrew. So the question is, what's New York City doing right? WEINGARTEN: I live in New York -- RHEE: You put $1 million into a mayoral campaign. I want to be a doctor and I want to be a veterinarian. BRZEZINSKI: When we come back, we'll be joined -- SCARBOROUGH: One thing we do agree on -- BRZEZINSKI: We have to go. ANTHONY: Its bittersweet to me. [30] In Ayers' view, the "corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public" have employed the film to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education," while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations. RHEE: What I think it comes down to, people underestimate we did from the school system side everything we need to do. I mean, not all teachers are created equal. /T1_1 57 0 R Why 'Waiting For Superman' Didn't Get An Oscar Nod : NPR You know, in Washington, D.C., under Mayor Fenty who arguably I think is the most courageous politician we have on these education reform issues, we did everything, arguably, that people wanted to see. In fact you come off quite badly. 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. I want to hear what some of those steps are, specific ones. /Filter /FlateDecode RHEE: Thats correct. A teacher wants to stay. SCARBOROUGH: Because we've been up to Harlem, we've seen what's happening up there. So it's important to understand how this is locked down here in D.C. and in New York. But the issue in terms of the election, went far further than education. I went up to a school up there. And it says that if all of us are actually committed to fixing this, we will follow the evidence of what works, follow it, be innovative, be creative but follow the evidence of what works and we will all work together to fix this so that every single child has access to a great public education, not by chance, not by privilege but by right. One of the reasons for the high test scores, writes Ravitch, is that many charter schools expel low-performing students to bring up their average scores. We'll be right back. Video Analysis: Waiting for Superman - Trinity College /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] It matters who your local representative is. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] GUGGENHEIM: And the stakes for them. Because politically, these -- the things that we were doing, closing down schools, firing teachers, moving principals, those were not politically popular things to do. >> GUGGENHEIM: When the media asked me to make the film, I originally said no. /Type /Pages RHEE: You know what, heres the thing. endobj BRZEZINSKI: Why not inspire them with pay? Because what is wrong with what he's saying? We're not attacking teachers. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you think that most of the kids in D.C. are getting a crappy education right now? >> There's a cap in New York State because ultimately when George Pataki and I and others started to work on having charter schools in this state, there was an issue in terms of the economics and what would happen with moneys in terms of other districts. Be the first to contribute. They clearly illustrate that no matter the area, teachers are failing America's youth at an alarming rate.. That youre not going to look American with our 15,000 school system and say we're going to charter them, that's just not going to happen in my lifetime.

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