Waiting For Superman Analysis

Title: Fire in the Ashes, Jonathan Kozol, Broadway Books Introduction: As a well accomplished writer, activist, and educator, Jonathan Kozol has devoted his life to the challenge of providing equal education to every child in our public schools.

Imagine being denied a basic education solely because your parents do not have a steady income, or being denied a basic education simply because you do not live in a place with access to a quality public school. For many, the lack of a satisfactory education is something that is not an issue, but one would be surprised to see how prevalent this problem actually is. The film, Waiting for Superman highlights the many issues that are indeed obvious when examining the United States’ education system. The film centers around failing schools in mainly urban areas where the problems seem to be the most abundant, but it does not deny the fact that these many problems do exist everywhere throughout the country. Director Davis Guggenheim generates, in the movie Waiting for Superman, the claim that our education system is failing, and highlights the idea that although there are some solutions that have shown effective there is still more that needs to be done. Guggenheim formulates his claim through his use of a shocking, sometimes sad tone as well as an effective narrative structure throughout the film.

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

Analyzing pathos, logos, and music in Waiting for Superman 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

An individual and the community they live in are both factors that impact individual's education. Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie is an essay published in the Los Angeles Times that describes the impact that reading had on his life and it shows that individuality triumphs community towards the goal

“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.

Although Waiting for Superman can be vivisected into the separate rhetorical techniques that it effectively uses, the documentary is truly a persuasive work because all of the individual rhetorical strategies have been sewn together to produce a blanket of persuasion. The documentary begins with an interview of Anthony, a student in D.C. The narrator asks him if someone eats 2 of 4 cookies, then what percent was eaten. Anthony correctly answers the problem after a few seconds, but his speech, grammar, and the time it took him to solve the problem all ally themselves towards the truth that he does not have the best education. Not only does this clip offer a student as an example, it wonderfully employs silence, for during the short clip, there is no music or background noise. This silence lends itself towards the absoluteness of education, or lack-thereof. Following this interview is two clips of an old superman film. These clips frame Geoffrey Canada, an educator, expressing his childhood beliefs about Superman. The first clip of Superman is merely Superman standing in front of a waving American Flag in the classic superhero pose: hands on his hips, chin up, and chest out. The visual image is a stark juxtaposition with the voiceover that states: “one of the saddest days was when my mother told me that Superman did not exist.” By stating that Superman does not exist, while showing an image of superman, sets up the context for the entire documentary. It supports the idea that the title presents; that education is waiting for something to save it, but there may be nothing that can. The introduction ends with Canada’s words that “there was no one coming with enough

Educational systems in America are impaired, and the very educators that are meant to teach are the one’s pulling it down. That is the apparent message that Davis Guggenheim attempts to convey in his documentary “Waiting for Superman”. He uses many strategies to get his message across. Some of these include cartoons, children, and those reformers that are attempting to pull the system out of the ditch that it has found its way into. He makes his point very well, and uses facts and figures correctly. He does leave out some of the opinions of the opposing views, but it does not take away from his point that the educational system in America is in need of repair.

Waiting for Superman Firefighters, Police officers, and soldiers are all of our heroes today, but the heroes that children are lacking in today’s society are teachers. In the documentary Waiting for Superman, it does a great job of showing many of the flaws in today’s education system. In Waiting for Superman, The music and audio features provide a humorous tone and also, at times, a more serious tone. Ethos is established throughout the Waiting for Superman documentary by having experienced teachers and presidents of well known educational companies give their thought on what needs to happen with the schooling system in the United States. The experts in this topic talked about how many of the public schools in the United States are considered to be dropout factories, which is where more than forty percent of the enrolled students drop out. This means more kids sitting on the street with no jobs or education. Furthermore, crime rates will go up, as well as the poverty level because the children can not get a well paying job. It is made known in Waiting for Superman, that the good schools are very expensive and only have limited spots available. To get into these schools, there are often raffles in which you enter for a chance to get in. This method is unfair because there is no guarantee you will get chosen, therefore you may end up getting a worse education than what you know you can receive.

Waiting For Superman To guarantee the access to education in our country, it is one of the most challenging and worst points for our society when it comes to the government. Every time a new government party begins everything changes and that causes major impact to our lives but when it

Stakeholder Response to Waiting for Superman Stake Holder Group When the word school is mentioned, often, we first think about students and teachers. These two groups roughly describe the educational system. This assignment will focus on teachers as stakeholders in public school districts.

Though some people may disagree I find that waiting for Superman is not an attack on teachers. In my opinion it is more of a testament to the importance of good teachers in our sometimes

Waiting for "Superman" was filmed by Davis Guggenheim. It was released back in 2009. It talks about the education system in different neighborhoods around the United States of America. It also shows the corruption in the education system. This movie shows how the bad the public education is, and how many people are struggling on a daily basis to get a great education no matter the sacrifices.

The former DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee and the president of Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada are two leaders whose work stood in out in 2010 as an example of leadership that showed courage, tenacity, and dedication to the future of this country through the education of children. They were

Lottery School All kids need is a little help, a little hope, and someone who believes in them - Magic Johnson. The documentary “ Waiting for Superman” that was released on September 24, 2010 is about showing people around that don’t live in America how public schools are, starting five students showing their struggles getting a better schools. The three important understandings I gained from watching this documentary include are the lack of finding good teachers, struggles of joining a charter school, and how important schools are for a lot of kids.