Waiting for Superman

10.17.10 By José Valenzuela

Now that the film is out nationwide, I feel it’s time to post my thoughts on this film. Back in July, I decided to travel down to Washington, DC to participate in protests in support of passing the DREAM Act through the legislature. The protests were sponsored by the Student Immigration Movement (largely based right here in Boston) and Dream University, a nationwide effort to raise awareness of the hundreds of thousands of young undocumented students that lack access to public higher education because of this country’s failed immigration policies. I was doing my part to support young people that were working hard to refashion their image, less as victims and criminals, but as advocates and hard-working scholars. That weekend in DC was a revelation for me, and it spoke to my role as an educator and advocate for my students, some of whom are undocumented.

While I was in DC, I was invited by a friend to watch a special screening of Waiting for Superman, a film that I had seen some previews for, but which had not received much national attention yet. I was excited mostly to get a chance to meet Geoffrey Canada, someone familiar to my students for his autobiography Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun about growing up in the South Bronx, and known to me as the CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone. I have been fascinated for a long time by his project because of its cradle-to-college model and holistic approach to health and human services. Harlem is also dear to my heart as the neighborhood where I spent many summers with my cousins, aunts and uncles who lived there.

After watching the film, I came away with the impression that non-educators would rave about the film, and educators (mostly K-12 teachers) would potentially hate the film. Even though Randi Weingarten is given voice, she is less a protagonist than Michelle Rhee or Geoffrey Canada. And there are certainly other problems with the facts presented in the film. That evening I had dinner with some new friends, all non-educators whom were curious to find out what it was like to teach. I spoke of my concerns around using business models to run schools and how large corporations (or large philanthropists) are gaining more influence on what is the most fundamental of our democratic, social institutions. I understood, though, why the director Davis Guggenheim’s film would have such high appeal with mainstream audiences. Waiting for Superman is a good film. I would even venture to say it’s better than An Inconvenient Truth because the five kids that Guggenheim follows are more charismatic and human than Al Gore.

But here, I draw back to my film studies background. And here is where those that oppose this film (like Rethinking Schools, which started NOT Waiting for Superman) get it wrong, or at least miss the point. Although this film is called a “documentary,” it is not meant to be fact. All documentaries have this vexing issue. They portray real life, but in order to conform to a two-hour format (the longer films still have this issue), scenes are edited. Music is added. Everything is maximized for narrative and dramatic effect. As they should be. Films are the most modern tool for portraying fiction. Even documentaries. In the case of Waiting for Superman, the film is a portrayal of Guggenheim and some education reformers’ fantasy of the problems and solutions in the educational world. And in many ways, we need fantasy. It is the realm in which we act out scenarios of the ideal, before we try them in the real world. Charter schools are not a solution to closing the achievement gap in American public schools because they represent such a small percentage of our schools. But Guggenheim has imagined that schools in the United States can be better, and I agree with that message. Our Declaration of Independence proclaimed “All men are created equal,” and yet we knew that the reality was much more unequal and unfair. And yet, that phrase “All men are created equal” is something quite powerful. It inspired men and women like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dolores Huerta to seek greater equality in this country for all people. The phrase is an unfinished promise from centuries ago. Public education is also a project that is unfulfilled. It is a project that few countries in this world have bothered to undertake - guarantee a free and high-quality education for all of our youth. We have a lot of work to do before we get there, but Guggenheim’s film demonstrates the conversation about education is shifting towards a place where people assume that high-quality education OUGHT to be guaranteed for every child. That matters.

And that’s why I will remember my participation in Dream University this summer. It reminds me that we still have to fight for what has been promised to us in this country. Someday we will be able to fulfill that promise, but until then, you can find me at TechBoston Academy in Dorchester fighting every day. If Superman wants to come, now he knows where to find me.