Last evening I attended a special showing of “Waiting for Superman.” It is a film about how schools are failing our kids. This showing was by invitation to community leaders as diverse as the superintendent of District 51, a school board member, teachers, bankers, businessmen, the mayors of Grand Junction and Fruita. The show was followed by a community open discussion about the film sponsored by several local businesses.
First the show: It follows several children who are not being well served by their local schools as they try to get into charter schools, where they might have a better chance of actually getting a good education. I’ll admit that the end of the film was a real tear-jerker. The film also focused on the widely reported battle between the teacher’s union and the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. Neither Michelle Rhee nor Randi Weingarten was presented as more than one-dimensional characters, with the film promoting Rhee as the hero and Weingarten as the shrill obstructionist labor boss.
The film had lots of statistics about how many failing schools there are in the U.S. and how few really excellent schools there are. It pointed out that Finland is rated number one in the world when it comes to educating its kids.
The discussion: After the show, we moved to a meeting room and broke up into small groups to talk about the film. My group included the superintendent of District 51, a single mom with teenagers in school, a teacher at a local charter school, a businessman who is a graduate of Grand Junction High School, but whose kids were educated elsewhere.
The discussion revolved around things like who should be accountable, and how the community might be involved in reforming schools. Views were varied but there seemed to be consensus that we need more focus on education, including educating parents about the importance of their involvement. Nobody seemed interested in “throwing money” at the problem, although it was noted that the average per pupil expense in the U.S. is $10,000, but in District 51 it is $6,700.
Reeves Brown, of Club 20, said that there were lots of private showings of this film around the state yesterday, but that Grand Junction was the only place where attendees agreed to meet for a discussion following the viewing. That’s a good thing, but it will take more than 35 interested people to really change the face of education.
Homework:
Waiting for Superman
Michelle Rhee Resigns
Rhee Vs Weingarten
Finland's Schools
First the show: It follows several children who are not being well served by their local schools as they try to get into charter schools, where they might have a better chance of actually getting a good education. I’ll admit that the end of the film was a real tear-jerker. The film also focused on the widely reported battle between the teacher’s union and the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. Neither Michelle Rhee nor Randi Weingarten was presented as more than one-dimensional characters, with the film promoting Rhee as the hero and Weingarten as the shrill obstructionist labor boss.
The film had lots of statistics about how many failing schools there are in the U.S. and how few really excellent schools there are. It pointed out that Finland is rated number one in the world when it comes to educating its kids.
The discussion: After the show, we moved to a meeting room and broke up into small groups to talk about the film. My group included the superintendent of District 51, a single mom with teenagers in school, a teacher at a local charter school, a businessman who is a graduate of Grand Junction High School, but whose kids were educated elsewhere.
The discussion revolved around things like who should be accountable, and how the community might be involved in reforming schools. Views were varied but there seemed to be consensus that we need more focus on education, including educating parents about the importance of their involvement. Nobody seemed interested in “throwing money” at the problem, although it was noted that the average per pupil expense in the U.S. is $10,000, but in District 51 it is $6,700.
Reeves Brown, of Club 20, said that there were lots of private showings of this film around the state yesterday, but that Grand Junction was the only place where attendees agreed to meet for a discussion following the viewing. That’s a good thing, but it will take more than 35 interested people to really change the face of education.
Homework:
Waiting for Superman
Michelle Rhee Resigns
Rhee Vs Weingarten
Finland's Schools
RSS Feed