I'm trying something a little different today: My first hosted blog carnival. The topic is Education. A simple word to describe a very complicated topic. As I write this intro, I realize that this post is going to be one of my book-length efforts, so here is a little information I need to get out above the fold:
This carnival was prompted by a PR query that enabled me to take some blogging friends along with me to see the new documentary, "Waiting for 'Superman'." The PR firm and its client, home school charter company K12, paid for us to see the movie. You'll find a full disclosure statement at the bottom of the extended post.
It's an important film - but I feel it's just a jumping-off point for discussing the complicated issues that face parents, teachers and children today. In fact, I've started -- and then scrapped -- this post about five times, because I'm having so much trouble wrapping my mind around it so I can present it succinctly.
My blogging friends who have seen the movie have posted their own thoughts:
- Sarah Auerswald: Waiting for "Superman": A Personal Review
- Yvonne Condes: Waiting for "Superman"
- Elise Crane Derby: Waiting for "Superman"
As I mentioned yesterday, I spent my college years studying film and television. I had no interest in learning anything that ended with "ology" - not "psych," not "geo," and definitely not "soci"!
So it's no surprise that I never took any education classes, and had very little interest in what was going on in the public school system.
Twenty years later, I finally had a child of my own, and for her sake, I had to educate myself about her educational options. And I didn't like what I saw.
And the ones who, like me, could not afford $10-20,000 per year in tuition were either planning to home school -- or move to a neighborhood in a "better" school district. And I could see why:
Public neighborhood schools with crumbling, weed-infested playgrounds. Poor test scores. High drop-out rates. Few native English-speaking students, even in affluent English-speaking neighborhoods. I was very, very afraid.
But I was lucky. Our home in the west San Fernando Valley is in the highest-performing LA Unified Local District (a scheme that was implemented several years ago to make the vast bureaucracy seem more manageable to its families).
That includes a number of well-regarded magnet schools, one of which -- Balboa Gifted Magnet -- consistently achieves nearly-perfect schoolwide API scores. Naturally, EVERYONE wants to send their kid to Balboa. Not everyone gets in.
We applied every year, from kindergarten to fifth grade (when it was no longer feasible to switch - but by this time, we were trying to accrue magnet points for middle school). I could not help but think about this experience while viewing "Waiting for 'Superman,'" which chronicles five families in their quest to get their children into charter schools that are superior to what is available in their neighborhoods.
One of those families live here in Los Angeles, in a local district that looks nothing like my affluent neighborhood in the West Valley. And after the movie, talking with friends who live in other local districts, I heard that their experience of LAUSD was less favorable than mine.
You see - my experience hasn't been that bad. Yes, we were disappointed at not getting into Balboa. But for those who cannot get into the magnet school of their choice, the District offers the SAS program. This stands for School for Advanced Studies, and is sold to the families as a kind of honors/gifted curriculum. We enrolled our daughter at an elementary school that offered an SAS program, and she did well.
She did get into a magnet for middle school and is now attending a magnet high school which achieves some of the highest scores in all of LAUSD.
My daughter is thriving, but I realize that is kind of a miracle. There are too many kids who haven't been as lucky as my daughter, to live in a safe neighborhood and attend a safe school, to have excellent teachers, to have found herself with a group of truly nice kids for friends.
All children deserve those things. Our public schools should not be - as the documentary calls them - "drop-out factories."
"Waiting for 'Superman'" runs a little under two hours. The problems with our education system are too vast to be covered in so short a time. The heroes in the movie are educators who are shaking up the system with charter schools, district superintendents who fight the teachers' unions and parents who will not rest easily until they find the best situation for their children.
In the nine years we've been in the school system, I've met a lot of parents whose children have been learning through the gamut of educational possibilities: Private school, traditional public school, magnet school, language immersion programs, special education programs, gifted programs, home schooling. And I've seen kids go from one situation to another as their needs have changed.
I've met a lot of teachers. For two years, I worked part time at my daughter's elementary school. I got to know our school administrators very well. I also had to work with District management and experienced first hand the rules and regulations imposed by the district, the state and the Federal government.
I noted that with all the demands placed upon our classroom teachers, it's a minor miracle that any actual teaching occurs.
I also noted that nearly all of the professionals I came in contact with cared very deeply about the jobs they were doing and the children they served. LAUSD may have a lot of problems - but a lack of good intentions is not one of them.
I've learned that one size does not fit all. Each child is different. Each child has different needs. I think the more choices we have for our children, the better chance they have of succeeding.
My sister helped start a charter school in her community up in Northern California. She'd be the first to tell me that a charter is not the answer to everybody's problems - but they are an option we should have.
I think the biggest benefit from the success of a film like Waiting for Superman is that the movie has put education at the top of the nation's list of Important Issues. It's spurring us all to talk about our public schools. It may even give us the will to finally fix the problems, once and for all.
DISCLOSURE: As stated at the top of this post, I and four other bloggers attended a showing of Waiting for Superman as guests of the charter home school company, K12.
Learn more by visiting K12.com or connecting with their community of parents and teachers on K12’s Facebook, Twitter, and Blog. Discover more about K12’s California online public school option at CAVA.
Thank you for writing such a great post about Waiting for Superman. I saw this movie as well, and it was fascinating to watch so many people with good intentions running into problems with the politics of the system. I couldn't be happier that this issue is getting so much attention. You're right in that the biggest benefit from this movie is increasing awareness of the issues that face schools today, so we can bring these problems into the light for all to see.
Disclosure, I work for K12, Inc and found your post through a colleague.
Posted by: Scott H | November 29, 2010 at 10:08 AM