Putting Children First

As the slip of paper is removed from the box, a new name is read, and the child jumps to her feet, hugging her mother who has tears streaming down her face.  "I don't believe it," she cries, oblivious to others around her.  Some children stare at her with envy etched into their young faces, while others bow their small heads, hands folded in prayer as the next name is read. 


Scene from Waiting for Superman, where children enter a lottery to see if they are selected to a charter school.


The Academy Awards recently awarded an Oscar for the best movie of the year, "The King's Speech".  I'm sure I'll get around to seeing it on DVD.  In the meantime, I was surprised to see that one of my favorite movies of 2010, the documentary "Waiting for Superman" was not even nominated.  The movie is a disconcerting look at the failure of our American public education by following five minority students in San Francisco, Baltimore, New York and Los Angeles.  The movie focuses on a few charter schools that have been able to successfully educate students and compares them to the failing traditional public schools -- positioning poor teachers, lack of proper financial incentives, tenure and teacher unions, as some of the impediments to effective school reform.

I was not surprised that Hollywood (and by default the documnetarians with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is not interested in presenting an attack on one of their beloved liberal bastions --public education.  However, director Davis Guggenheim is the same director who gave us "An Inconvenient Truth" -- a look at Vice President Al Gore's fervent crusade to halt global warming -- so you can't say that his political leanings are shared by too many conservatives.

The purpose of this post is not to discuss the merits of this documentary being nominated, however.  Rather I want to take issue with some of the positions taken -- and not taken -- about our current education system.  Start paying attention parents, your child's future is depending on it.

The charter school universe.
"Charter schools are not the silver bullet," director Guggenheim states, "but they are an experiment.... a very new experiment."  Charter schools like the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools, profiled in the movie, provide students with a successful structure:  more school days, longer school days, accountability (when was the last time you heard that in a public school?), and setting the goal of going to college.

I've always been told  that for you to succeed you need to see yourself succeed.  Students today are told that it's alright to fail.  The dreaded "self esteem" merits schools handing out awards for "trying hard" and not keeping scores in athletics.  It's not surprising that competitions that award "first, second and third place" attract the most talent.  Schools need to allow our children to succeed and fail, while emphasizing the effort needed to be great.

Another feature of charter schools is their ability to innovate.  Unlike public schools -- even great public schools -- a charter school's curriculum and instruction are reflective of the school's unique mission/structure.  Direct instruction in reading and math may be the strength of one school while the performing arts and music are emphasized somewhere else.

Emphasize the needs of children, not teacher unions.
The National Education Association and the American Federal of Teachers are the most organized and powerful voices in education politics.  These unions continue to block reform that would put the emphasis on children not teachers.  In the case of Wisconsin's battle against public employee unions, a bill limiting collective bargaining is under fierce opposition from professional labor and teacher unions determined to hold on to their power.

"Waiting for Superman" highlights New York City where teachers awaiting disciplinary measures are kept in "rubber rooms" doing nothing while still receiving full pay as their grievances went through the system.  The city is now spending more than $100 million every year paying teachers who have been excessed but have yet to find a job.   This is what the unions want:  to keep the teachers on the payroll regardless of the work they do.  Why?  As long as they are on the payroll, they keep paying union dues.  The unions don't care about the children who are hurt by this misallocation of funds, only about protecting their members and, by extension, their own pockets.

Another shocking example in the movie is an animated illustration of "The Dance of the Lemons." It is the systematic shuffling of incompetent teachers from one school to another.  These teachers can't be fired because union contracts require excessed educators are to be given first crack at new job openings.  Administrators don't want to hire these bad teachers, and districts are unable to fire them -- so guess what happens?

Parents/family need to be involved.
Years ago, as a cub scout leader for my boy's troop 17, I was constantly frustrated by the lack of involvement by parents.  They would drop their scout off at my home and vanish for the next 90 minutes.  So I can empathize with teachers whose difficult job is made more difficult by students who 1) don't do scheduled homework, 2) are disrespectful in class, or worse yet 3) don't show up for class.

Many of the problems our public school systems face today are a result of lack of parental involvement in their children's education.  And I don't mean showing up for parent/teacher conferences twice a year.  Parents need to let their children know, and provide strict guidelines for, doing well in school.  Just like we want schools to emphasize excellence in school, we -- as parents -- need to stress excellence and an expectation of our children to do the best that they can.  That means sitting down with them and helping them with homework, talking to the teacher about work not getting done, and making sure that they are going to class.

If there was one glaring omission in "Waiting for Superman" it would be a discussion on parental involvement.  The five children in the movie came from poor black and Hispanic families with one parent (the Hispanic family consisted of two parents, but one was unemployed).  So parental responsibilities extend beyond school -- forming relationships between two adults that remain together and who work for a living.  Certainly not an easy task.

Children need a strong family foundation and setting, where they can get attention and support.  The family dynamic and the need to get off state-provided assistance and welfare (where single family homes flourish) is another topic for another day.  And perhaps for another documentary that will not be nominated.

Like the name implies, "Waiting for Superman" presents a system badly in need of a superman -- be it charter schools, vouchers, two parent homes --  to save it.  Putting children first, and having the courage to stand up to unions -- not necessarily teachers -- is the equivalent to Superman beating kryptonite.

No one said it was going to be easy.