WAITING FOR SUPERMAN

Are you waiting for Superman?
By Kelvin Wade October 07, 2010 4:40PM

Working with my grandkids on their studies has focused my attention like never before on our education system. One thing that's caught my eye is a new documentary by Davis Guggenheim, the director of 'An Inconvenient Truth,' about our crumbling public education system called 'Waiting for Superman.' I think everyone should see it.

The title comes from Harlem Kids Zone leader and educator Geoffrey Canada's lament that one of the saddest days in his childhood was when his mother told him Superman wasn't real. It was then he realized no one was coming to save him from poverty and the ghetto.

Now I wrote that Guggenheim directed 'An Inconvenient Truth' for a reason. I'm betting conservative readers are already prejudiced against the film for that reason alone. If I tell you one of the points of the movie is that public education reform is often hamstrung by teachers unions, I bet that makes you conservatives smile. At the same time, teachers and liberals now are probably skeptical of the film.

My point is: leave your ideology at the door. The issue is too big for right or left. Red and blue splits are for gangbangers. It's too great for sacred cows and coddling egos. We need collaboration, not confrontation.

If you cannot or won't see the film, then pick up the companion book, 'Waiting for Superman,' edited by Karl Weber. The book boasts perspectives by Bill and Melinda Gates, Washington, D.C., school Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the aforementioned Geoffrey Canada and more. Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, also has a chapter in the book where she not only criticizes the movie but offers interesting ideas to reform education.

While the book and movie are great calls to action and are already stirring national debate, I'm struck by how little parents and students are mentioned in the equation. Of course I think we do need effective teachers, principals and administrators with accountability in the form of results produced. We need longer school days and longer school years. And we need to raise expectations.

It's great to see involvement by businesses such as OfficeMax that just awarded David A. Weir teacher Sunny Jaye $1,000 in school supplies. And McDonald's is sponsoring McTeachers Night on Wednesday to raise money for local schools.

But the thing I can do right now to make the most immediate impact is to do what I've been doing and that's getting hands on with my grandkids' studies.

Vika is doing great in kindergarten, earning excellent scores on all of his work. He's flourishing academically and socially. The amazing thing about him is that he's excited by learning. He loves going to school.

I'd downloaded some educational games on my iPhone months ago that he was loathe to play. He wanted to play the arcade-style games on my phone. But now, he may play those arcade games for a little while but then he switches to the educational games all on his own.

Lauryn, the 13-year-old who had multiple Fs last year, is now scoring As and Bs. She recently told me, 'Cs are unacceptable. I want to be on the honor roll.'

She had an assignment to learn the 50 states in alphabetical order in 10 days and she learned them in a night. We raised the bar on what to expect from her and she's delivering, often to her own surprise!

There's so much we need to do as a society to make sure 50 percent of minorities aren't dropping out of high school. We've got to fight our way from ninth place to first in college graduates in the world. We've got to close the achievement gap. We've got to give all children a quality education. And the movie and the book will inspire you to help be part of the solution.

But as for me and my grandkids, we're not waiting for Superman. Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: This film is controversial because of the position it takes on teachers unions. But if you're going to focus on that and fight that tooth and nail, we won't get anything done. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers writes about how the union and school districts can partner in changing outdated teacher evaluation methods. That's what we need: everyone collaborating.

I'm for doing what works and I don't care who gets the credit.

I urge people to pick up the book because it's loaded with numbers that will make your jaw hit the floor. Talking about effective teachers vs. ineffective teachers is controversial. There's a study that shows that if a minority student can have four years of an effective teacher, they can close the achievement gap. That's huge.

There are also tons of organizations listed in the book where people can lend a hand in helping turn it around.

If public education were a business, hundreds and possibly thousands of schools would be shut down because they're not producing positive results. Yet we allow these "bad" schools to continue harming students. We've got to shut down the bad schools. We've got to weed out people who are ineffective. We've got to have accountability. And we've got to get parents involved.

I've already thrown my hat into the ring when it comes to education. Without doing any polling or taking any surveys, I think the fastest thing we can do is for parents to get involved with their kids. Not even parents. Just some adult. Grandparent, uncle, aunt, mom's boyfriend...for an adult to spend time making sure homework is completed and taking an interest, it can turn things around quickly. Also, raise the bar. We have to raise expectations. It seems counterintuitive to raise the bar when kids are struggling but we have to expect more out of them. We have to show them that they're more capable than they currently believe. The result will be a burst of REAL self-confidence and not the phony "everyone gets a trophy" confidence we've tried to hand kids over the years.

Just today Lauryn was beaming with pride. She's earning 4 A's, 1 B and a P (Pass/Fail class). Just outstanding!! Total 180 degree change. And I can't take the credit. I'm not doing those assignments or taking those tests. She's doing it. I gave her some tools and she's using them and making the most of her opportunity and I'm so proud.