Book Review: Waiting for “Superman”

Waiting for “SUPERMAN”: How We Can Save America’s Failing Public Schools, the companion book to the film, was an excellent addition to the film. I was pleased to learn more about the filmmakers, the making of the film, the issues raised in the film, and the people I met watching it.

The film’s director and producer, as well as several of the educators and experts featured in the film each wrote a chapter. Each of these chapters begins with an introduction to the writer which helps put the chapter in context. This format threw me at first because I didn’t just want to learn “about the movie” but it turned out to be an excellent way to expand the discussion.

While reading the chapter written by Guggenheim, I found myself wondering why I was reading so much about An Inconvenient Truth, one of his previous films, but that proved to be a good thing too. I have a whole new appreciation for both films after learning more about their structure. Learning from An Inconvenient Truth, where he cut together one long film with several shorter mini-films, Guggenheim actually directed two entirely separate films for Waiting for “Superman.” The working titles for these films were Other People’s Children and The Folly of the Adults. It was only after completing both films independently, and ensuring that they “worked” separately, that Guggenheim cut them together to create Waiting for “Superman”.

I think Guggenheim exaggerates his “discovery” of this method but that doesn’t diminish his excellence in execution. If he is telling the truth, it is quite an accomplishment in my mind.

The book followed a similar pattern. Each part of the book begins with an introduction which introduces us to one of the students featured in the film. The following chapters then take a different direction where the issues are explored in more detail.

I saw the film first, and as you’ll read in my review on Saturday, I thought it had flaws. I was pleased that the book addressed these. The flaws in the film can be summed up in its portrayal of charter schools. The film left me with several impressions:

1. Teachers’ unions are the problem.
2. All we need is better teachers.
3. These particular charter schools have “solved” the problem.

The implications are that all charter schools are always better than and have better teachers than “regular” public schools. The book does a better job of pointing out that this is not the case. I was glad to see this.

If you care about education, you should see the film and read the book. I enjoyed reading the book after viewing the film and it probably makes sense to do the same since they were produced in that order. If you are not familiar with the people featured in the film, you may want to “cheat” and read the small intros at the start of each chapter.