Since the 20th century, American public schools have produced more than 100 Nobel Prize winners, 10 presidents, and countless great men. But this has become more and more once brilliant, and now public schools have become the last choice of many American parents. The first choice for private schools that are capable, but those who are unable to squeeze their heads to send their children to charter schools. "Waiting for Superman" focuses on five children, four of whom belong to urban poor families, and the other, although living in the suburbs, faces the same problem when choosing a quality school. Of the four children from poor urban families, three are enrolled in public schools with poor teaching quality, and the other is in a church school, but the child’s mother seems to be trying her best to maintain it. All five children yearn for a good school. Daisy, a smart and easy-to-learn girl, said "a good school will not let you learn badly", which should really be the motto of all educators. It is very difficult for children to realize their dream of entering a good school-it must be decided by lottery or computer lottery, and the probability is so small. For example, Harlem Success School has 40 enrollment places, but 792 families apply; KIPP preparatory school has 10 enrollment places, but 135 families apply. Of the five children, only one got what he wanted, and was lucky enough to be selected as a candidate after adjusting the list. If Anthony hadn't received the call from SEED school to admit him, he would go straight to Sousa Junior High School-the Washington Post called it a "sinkhole". The future of children depends on the lottery ball or the number pick in their hands. This is the United States, and I can't help but be surprised.
In 2002, the Democrats and Republicans worked together to rectify education and proposed that "no child left behind"-"no one less" turned out to be an international ideal-by 2014, 100% of students in the United States reached the standard for math and reading ability. Eight years have passed, and the data shows that it is not optimistic. Education experts call those schools where more than 40% of students cannot graduate as "dropout factories", and there are nearly 2,000 "dropout factories" across the United States. For example, Looke High School in Los Angeles has a total of 60,000 students in 40 years, but as many as 40,000 students have not graduated. At Roosevelt High School, only 3% of students can achieve college application results each year, and the graduation rate of junior high school is only 25%. According to statistics, the United States loses an average of 7,000 students every school day. A total of 1.2 million students drop out each year, and only 70% of high school students finally graduate. Millions of fifteen or six-year-old school dropouts roam the streets all day, generation after generation. The areas where dropouts are concentrated have also become areas where social problems are concentrated. Dr. Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University simply said: "The bad places are caused by bad schools." For example, 68% of prisoners in Pennsylvania are dropouts. Ironically, the government needs to spend $33,000 per prisoner every year. Based on the 4-year renovation period, a total of 132,000 US dollars will be required. The average annual cost of a private school is $8,300. Starting from kindergarten and graduating from high school in grade 12, a child would need a total of US$107,900, which is US$24,100 less than the cost of a prisoner’s four-year rehabilitation. This looks like a joke, but similar jokes are everywhere.
The attention, investment and dedication of American parents to their children’s education is beyond my imagination. Bianca’s mother, who works as a cleaner in the hospital, looks like a single mother. “No matter how many jobs I need to do, she will definitely go to university. There is no doubt about it.” She tried her best to allow her daughter to go to church school. In the end, due to a little money from school, her daughter could graduate, but she could not attend the graduation ceremony; Anthony's grandmother talked about her grandson, and said moved: "There is nothing I can't do for him." Francisco's mother asked her son to bring her again and again. Oral message to the teacher, she wanted to see her son's school record, but she never got a reply. She took her son to a cram school near her home. She took a 45-minute subway ride to observe the teaching at Harlem Success School. She would like to accompany her son to get up at 5 o'clock every day and arrive at school before 7:45...
Low-quality teachers and insensitive school bureaucracy are the fundamental reasons that prevent students from getting a good education. This is the basic point of the film. Guggenheim even pointed the finger at the teachers’ union, accusing teachers of just keeping their jobs and lacking enthusiasm for teaching, and the government has no monitoring mechanism to screen and eliminate unqualified teachers. There is a flash animation that reflects the impact of a single teacher on a group of students. In one academic year, the amount of learning of students who follow a good teacher is three times that of students who follow a poor teacher. As for those unqualified and incompetent teachers, they know that they are not good enough, the students know that, and other teachers and school leaders also know that they are also pushed around and passed, "dancing lemon", "passing" "Trash", "Turkey Run"... But fundamentally no one can do anything about them, because the teachers in American public schools enjoy lifelong system, and the threshold is so low that they only need two years of teaching-ha! This is something I didn't expect. Holding the iron rice bowl, but also leaning on the big tree-the Teachers Union and the National Education Association. The strength of unity is great, and the chairmen's speeches echoed a hundred responses, like a tsunami. reform? The teacher alliance is the biggest obstacle. They love the rights of teachers as their own eyes. The film also meaningfully introduces the two major alliances and they are also the largest contending donors. In the past 20 years, the Union of Teachers has donated US$55 million to the Democratic Party, making it a major donor. "Unless the problem of the teacher alliance is solved, nothing can be done." All problems ultimately point to politics?
In 2009, the unemployment rate in the United States was 10%, but there were insufficient talents in the high-tech field. "It is well-educated employees to make the economy develop well." Bill Gates said in the film. He stated in Congress, "We cannot rely on reforms to support the economy unless we have well-educated citizens who are proficient in mathematics and technology. , Engineering, if we can’t do it, we won’t be able to have an advantage in the global economic competition.” By 2020, there are 123 million high-tech and high-paying jobs in the United States, but only about 50 million Americans can do the job. The rest You need to recruit from the world. "How strong this country will be in 20 years, and how fair and reasonable this country will be in 20 years, depends largely on this (education) decision." Gates said.
The film introduces two outstanding education reformers: Geoffrey Canada and Michelle Rhee. Although the former runs through the film, the "Harlem Children's Quarter" created in New York provides quality education for thousands of slum students. But I was even more impressed by the 37-year-old Asian woman Li Yangji. Li Yangji does not have a doctorate degree. Before entering Washington Public Schools in 2007, he had never been in charge of the education system. After taking office, he implemented drastic reforms in more than 100 public schools under his jurisdiction. The most powerful thing is to break the deep-rooted "big pot of rice" and seniority ranking, shut down poorly managed schools, and fire hundreds of incompetent teachers and school administrators, including the principal of her daughter's school. The effect of the reform is obvious. The performance of students in Washington Public Schools, which was almost the last in the United States, has improved considerably. At the end of 2008, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine and was selected by the magazine as the leader of American education reform. But in the month when "Waiting for Superman" was staged, in October 2010, she had to resign sadly after her term of office had not expired, and even the mayor Adrian Fenty, who supported her reforms, was also re-elected. .
The "culprit" teachers' union in public education was naturally annoyed by "Waiting for Superman." President of the Teachers Union Randy Weingarten believes: “Don’t just let individual teachers be scapegoats or emphasize one part of the education system.” The President of the Education Association, Rocker, is far from being so implicit. He issued a statement criticizing that the film can’t hear teachers at all. The voice, blindly demonizing public education, teacher unions, and teachers, lacks constructive discussions on reforms, "If you want to know how to make public schools better, ask the teacher, not Hollywood." Ha!
But the good thing about the film is precisely here. It spreads out the problem and makes free comments, which is more important than anything else! The "Outline for China's Educational Reform and Development" formulated in 1993 clearly stated that "gradually increase the proportion of national fiscal expenditures on education in the GDP, reaching 4% at the end of this century". 18 years have passed and it has not been fulfilled. 2008 was the highest in history, but financial education expenditures only accounted for 3.48% of GDP. On the other hand, our rail transit, high-speed rail, etc., are "generous" with trillions of investment at every turn. Shall we also make a film to discuss and discuss?
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