Superman Cannot Always Save The Day

Pedro Noguera, a phenomenal urban sociologist and a professor at New York University confronts the problems which exist in our nation’s education system in his book, City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Noguera describes what he views to be the main problems facing urban education and suggests strategies for improvement. From years of experience as a teacher and school board member, he reflects on what he believes to be the real problems. Noguera blames the school’s failures on students, parents, and teachers which leads to blame local government officials or policymakers. Noguera states in City Schools and the American Dream, “The central argument of this book is that until there is a genuine commitment to address the social context of schooling — to confront the urban condition — it will be impossible to bring about significant and sustainable improvements in urban public schools” (pg.6). Noguera believes that we must address the central problem to make any type of solutions for improvement.

Many children will be born in poor regions and low income areas around the world and may not ever be presented with the opportunity for a decent education. Sherman Alexie brings this fact to the reader’s attention on a personal level in his short story “Superman and Me”. This story follows a young Indian boy into his struggle of illiteracy and acceptance from his peers and friends. Alexie was able to focus the reader’s attention and convey much of his feelings into his written words because the story was about him and his own personal experiences. “Superman and Me” projects a message to the reader, that when faced with adversity, and when all odds are against you, willpower and determination can overcome even the toughest of obstacles.

In an urban school district the students suffer with short budges, poverty and most of the time lack of interest because of struggle. In the documentary Virtual Equality the reality of those students in the period of time showed where they were striving. Because they didn’t

     In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol documents the devastating inequalities in American schools, focusing on public education’s “savage inequalities” between affluent districts and poor districts. From 1988 till 1990, Kozol visited schools in over thirty neighborhoods, including East St. Louis, the Bronx, Chicago, Harlem, Jersey City, and San Antonio. Kozol describes horrifying conditions in these schools. He spends a chapter on each area, and provides a description of the city and a historical basis for the impoverished state of its school. These schools, usually in high crime areas, lack the most basic needs. Kozol creates a scene of rooms without heat, few supplies or text, labs with no

In 2010, Davis Guggenheim released one of the years most talked about documentaries, Waiting for Superman. His film was an eye opening, to many, look at the failings of the U.S. school system. The film follows five students across the U.S., who range in grade level from kindergarten to eighth grade, as they try and escape the public school system through a lottery for a chance admission to a charter school. Guggenheim lays the blame for the failing public education system at the feet of the various teachers unions, and makes a plea for the public in general to get involved in reforming the system. By analyzing Waiting for Superman through a sociological perspective, issues of inequality will be explained using the theoretical approach

This demonstrates that if Sam’s school had got more funding then Sam may have received a proper education, and would have learned the intellectual skills that could help him to obtain a high paying job. Unlike many other people in richer parts of America who are able to achieve a lot in life due to their education, Sam’s lack of wealth ruins his future. Another example is one that hits closer to home- in terms of educational funding, the Illinois system is corrupt, and one of the districts that suffers most is that of Chicago Public Schools. In an interview with Ryan Young from CNN and an anonymous Chicago Public School teacher over the recent strike over budget cuts and the overall lack in school funding, the teacher states, “We care about the students. We want funding for our schools so our children can have supplies… gym, art, and PE., just like the kids in the suburbs do.” This is a direct representation of what is occurring in the Chicago Public School system today as a consequence of budget cuts and unequal funding. In general, the lack of school funding gives poorer children disadvantages when it comes to supplies that can help them to thrive. Also, budget cuts weaken the capacity of schools’ to develop the intelligence and creativity of the next generation of workers. In fact,, funding cuts lessen the ability of the schools to help prepare children better for their future, such as improving teacher

The documentary presents intrinsic issues facing the child age demographic. The title of the documentary is ‘waiting for superman.’ The title in itself speaks of a sense of hope in an abstract idea that is simply imaginary in nature. The term superman is, in this context, used to describe the education system. The title of the documentary describes the high sense of hope with which children go to school. This high sense of hope is motivated by the ignorance that they harbor as to the actual dynamics of the public school system. The premise should be that no child is left behind. This is with reference to learning in the school system. This theoretical analogy is, however, very far from the actual truth on the ground. The situation is that a lot of children are left behind. An argument can be made from the documentary that all of the children in the public school

Over the last few years public school systems have been slowly decreasing in their effectiveness, causing there to be many students, especially those whose families are struggling financially, to be left behind; while others, who have the ability to enter charter schools, are receiving a better education and are succeeding. The documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by David Guggenheim, is focused on this disheartening truth about the American Education System. Through the use of rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos, and music, it attracts the audience to the plot and leaves them with an unsettling feeling about schooling that will hopefully cause them to want to take

The article, “Who benefits from failing urban school districts?” written by Martin Haberman, the authors influential piece expresses the concern for the current direction of public education. When the concept of who is benefiting from failing urban school districts is mentioned; one would believe that no one can possibly benefit from schools failing. The children aren’t benefiting, their parents aren’t benefiting, the community isn’t benefiting. The public institution is becoming a big business instead of an institution that helps children in their development. It is obvious that there are challenges in the schooling system. In this manuscript, I will discuss the issues with the bureaucracy in education. There will also be mentioning of how standardized testing and the lack of resources in urban schools are affecting children’s education in the urban community. Lastly, there will be a discussion about how parents and teachers have an effect on children’s education.

“One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman didn’t exist... I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us.” Just as many children look up to fictional characters such as Superman, parents rich or poor, look up to our school system to educate their children. However, too many of these parents are beginning to realize that proper education, like Superman, is nonexistent. In Waiting for “Superman,” Davis Guggenheim addresses the teachers union about the failing public school system in America. Through the use of ethos, anecdotes, statistics and visual and audio elements, Guggenheim attacks a problem too precious to let slip through our fingers.

4. Some people think charter schools, school vouchers and more standardized testing are the answer.

While growing up superman the official hero was raised to protect those weaker than himself and, to protect the American regulations. When Superman was young, his home planet Krypton exploded. Therefore, He was position in a rocket by his parents, and casted off into space. The rocket blasted on Earth particularly in Kansas the Kent family rescued him. The Kent family took him in as their son and named him Clark. As he’s getting older up he learned that he had superpowers that others did not have. As superman becomes the official hero he strongly pursues society acceptance. For superman dating or marriage is a significant part of his life and, usually pursue woman that the longs for. For instance, when he made a decision between saving Lois

Education and learning are important in today's society. It seems America has a wonderful education system, but if we think deeply, we can figure out that most part in American education is broken. This is a sad truth that the educational system is not working as is supposed to be. Now it becomes messy and it mostly became a business place where money matters. And people should do something to improve it again. This paper will continue to discuss on education in the United States based on the videos depicting the broken education system, the Common Core, and Dan Rather's analysis of the Detroit Education system.

I just wanted to thank you for looking after me so well, even though I’m not yet born. I know that you already tried harder than superman, you didn’t let mommy eat sushi. But I need to ask you a favor…. Warning is about boys, because you see I would be born a girl which means by the time I’m fourteen the boys at my classroom would have called me hoer and many other things. It’s just for fun and that’s something boys do, so you are worried and I understand that, perhaps you did the same when you were young, trying to impress some of the other boys. I’m sure you didn’t mean anything by it, still some of the people want get the joke and it’s none of the girls it’s some of the boys. So by the time I turn sixteen a couple of boys would touch me

Media has grown to be accepted as a very important teaching tool and is even being used with that exact purpose, education. As Henry A. Giroux said about animated films, “I soon found that for my children, and I suspect for many others, these films possess at least as much cultural authority and legitimacy for teaching roles, values, and ideals as more traditional sites of learning…” But what we see now is this ‘teaching tool’ schooling the public about school itself.