Mr Teachbad finally saw Waiting for Superman

[proud2BlibKansan]

I met Mr. Teachbad at the SOS march in DC in July. I found him to be a charming and very intelligent man. He was a teacher in DC public schools until he was fired last spring. He believes he lost his job because of his blog. If you haven't yet discovered Mr. Teachbad, enjoy! His is probably the most humorous teacher blog I've ever read. Also probably the rudest. But I've always been somewhat partial to rude.

<skip>

There is nothing…NOTHING…that Amer­i­cans like more than a cute, non-white kid between the ages of 5 and 11 look­ing atten­tive and excited in school and then rais­ing his hand; then look­ing even more atten­tive, hope­ful and empow­ered than before…and we didn’t even know that was pos­si­ble. We can’t even stand it. It makes our lit­tle hearts swell and we’ll do any­thing for you if you promise us that you will help this kid and snug­gle him and make sure that he is OK. You just can’t beat that. Don’t even try because you’ll look like an asshole.

The movie is great with imagery. Rough footage of crowded, crappy-looking school build­ings jux­ta­posed with low-income par­ents who, despite their lack of wealth, are deter­mined to do any­thing and every­thing they can do to get the best pos­si­ble edu­ca­tion for their kids. (There is also com­i­cally scary music play­ing when the dis­cus­sion turns to the teach­ers’ unions and their con­tri­bu­tions to the Demo­c­ra­tic Party. Spoiler Alert: It turns out that Democ­rats hate poor kids.)

Watch­ing this film I never had any doubt that the par­ents and kids in it were absolutely gen­uine. As an obser­va­tion of doc­u­men­tary film-making, which I am in no way qual­i­fied to make, it holds up well in that respect. It uses real peo­ple and their very real emo­tions as a tool to cre­ate emo­tion in the viewer. It’s pretty effec­tive, and there’s noth­ing wrong with that.

It wants us to feel a cer­tain way in order that we might believe and do cer­tain things. I believe this is called per­sua­sion. At the end of the movie, I really wanted all those kids to get picked in the lot­ter­ies for the char­ter schools. I would be a total dick if I didn’t feel that way…after see­ing how hard every­body had strug­gled and all.

more . . . http://teachbad.com/2011/12/13/teachbad-watches-waiting-for-superman-part-i/

[dkf]

1. This film ignores the fact that a crit­i­cal mass of par­ents who send their kids...

"This film ignores the fact that a crit­i­cal mass of par­ents who send their kids to “fail­ing schools” are not deter­mined to do any­thing and every­thing they can to get the best pos­si­ble educ­tion for their kids. Rather, they are shitty parents…"

And therein lies the rub.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. My initial reaction when I saw the film was amazement at the crowds of parents in those scenes

at the end of the film. Standing room only in gyms and auditoriums - parents who are all so concerned and involved they had gone to the extreme of a lottery system to find a new school for their children.

That's just not the reality. This year alone - we had an awards assembly a few weeks ago and you could count on two hands the parents in attendance. Then we had an event in the evening. We brought in local elected officials and police officers to talk about community issues ranging from crime to activities at the local community center. Again, poor attendance. More school district staff than parents. This past week, a Christmas program. The children were on stage singing Christmas songs. 15 parents came. We also sent notes home asking parents to agree to send items for class parties this week. Very few responded.

I know it's not politically correct to blame the parents and I'm not going to do that. I'm just stating the reality that parents don't support urban core schools. And this is a change. I can remember 20+ years ago, if we put kids up on stage, we would have a standing room only audience. No I don't know if the change is due to parents' work hours or what, I am only reporting the change.

So I found those large crowds in the movie very unrealistic. I wish that was the reality.

[dkf]

3. In a large enough area I am sure it is possible.

But these parents are spread out and not the majority.

It's not even the parents fault per se...if you were not brought up that way how can you pass that along to your kids?

In electing not to judge people, we now have no reinforcement for those attitudes and behaviors that create the results we want to see.

[Tansy_Gold]

5. Don't put all the blame on the parents

Even the shitty parents.

25 or so years ago, I found out there was to be an "awards assembly" at my kids' school. I didn't know if my kids were getting any awards or not (they were in 4th and 3rd grades respectively), but i took the afternoon off work to attend. As it turned out, my husband and I were the only parents in attendance. We found out the principal didn't think parents would be interested.

The following year, after we had publicized the event just to the parents of our kids' friends, more than 30 parents joined us. None of them had known anything about it until we told them.

Word spread quickly. Three years after that, when my daughter was graduating 8th grade, the gym was completely packed with parents.

This was a school in which over 30% of students qualified for free lunches, and at least 25% had limited or no English at home.

It's so easy to put blame on one group or the other, because it's always a group we're not in. It's always "them." The shitty parents, the disconnected principals, the poorly prepared TFA teachers, etc., etc., etc.

No, it's all of us. And we have to work from wherever we're at.


TG

[MrTeachbad]

13. the trap

that's the trap.

It's not the kid's fault because their parents are fucked up...and it's not the parent's fault because their parents were fucked up on crack in the 80s.

So, now we're three generations deep and it's nobody's fault except the 25 year old teacher from the suburbs of Minneapolis? Really?

C'mon.
teachbad.com

[Fearless]

4. The film is just a puppet for the current

educational elite's ideas. Nothing profound. Nothing useful.

[Starry Messenger]

6. His review of this film is my favorite.

[Reader Rabbit]

7. Where is Part 2?

I'm looking, but I can't find it, or a link!

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I don't think he's posted it yet

I couldn't find it either.

[MrTeachbad]

9. Waiting for Superman Review, Part 2

Hi, folks-

My name is Mr. Teachbad. I am new to DU, but have been following for a while and really appreciate that Starry Messenger and maybe others have been posting my stuff. I decided to join and respond to the specific request for Part 2 of my review of Waiting for Superman. Here is is: http://teachbad.com/2012/01/10/waiting-for-superman-to-fix-all-these-shitty-parents/

Best,
Peter

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Welcome!!!

I met you at SOS and you gave me a set of Teachbad magnets.

So glad to see you here!

[eridani]

11. Cool! Please chime in every now and then n/t

[Starry Messenger]

12. Hey!

Welcome to DU! My fiance gave me a MrTeachbad mug for Christmas and I love using it! Great to see you here!

[Sancho]

14. We showed this film here and had a good attendance...

but I have to say that most of the audience in Florida were pretty critical of Rhee and the attempts to "privatize" schools. The legislature here is all GOP, but the citizens have repeatedly supported education as constitutional amendments on class size, support for schools, and public colleges. Honestly, the attacks have driven up union membership and rallied teachers to the street corners.

I think more teachers have seen Waiting for Superman than parents. The battle with Rick Scott is pretty rough, but in the long run parents here don't hate teachers and schools enough to radically go along with all the crazy ideas.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. If you're on Facebook,

The SOS Florida page is terrific. Lots of great and politically active teachers are putting up great stuff on that page.