Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for 'Superman'" Heroes and Myths

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http://www.counterpunch.org/tolu10212010.html

By TOLU OLORUNDA

His latest, Waiting for “Superman”, far from the revolutionary-work-of-righteousness mainstream media reviews have unanimously lauded it to be, only stops an inch away from insisting upon total razing of the public school system. The premise is laid down with little substance—but, oh, much style and flash. Students who would rather attend Princeton than Prison seem to have only one option: escape whatever public schools neighboring their homes, win a lottery ticket into a charter school or private school at which Science and Math feature prominently, graduate, attend college, graduate, fall in line to compete in the global economy (possibly for non-existent jobs), reflect on a fulfilled life, and ultimately slip into a coffin.

The man and his material don’t differ a dime. Guggenheim loves to chant corporate slogans of all inner-city schools being “dropout factories,” as though teachers and principals and other employees work steadfastly—intentionally—to push students off the attendance list. Reform is needed, Guggenheim repeatedly insists, and thankfully, as he explained to MTV News on September 7 this year, the last decade has ushered in “a new generation of reformers who are doing an amazing job, in every city across the country. They’re starting to break the code on how you can educate kids, even in the toughest neighborhoods. So there’s a lot of hope if we focus on these reforms and smart reforms, and put away all the adult problems, we can actually start helping kids.”

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On September 23, when CBS News host Katie Couric raised the issue of critics who’ve pinned down his claims of a delusionary-evil-conspiracy by the unions to murder the darling dreams of reformists, Guggenheim, twitchy and half-way coherent, shot back, sputtering: “I’m a big believer in unions. I think the teacher’s union should be alive for a long time.” He explained his union, the Directors Guild of America, sternly protects his rights and keeps him in good financial shape; but, with the teachers’ unions, “contracts have become so stringent, that they’ve gotten in the way of running a school.” Called for at this precipice of history are “unions that are flexible,” union leaders obediently “rethinking things like tenure, and rethinking things like how … you assess and evaluate teachers.”

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A day before his interview with Couric, ABC’s Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, no Trotskyite, had stunned Guggenheim’s hitherto flawless basic cable promotional rounds, swinging at him with queries about the failed promises of merit pay for teachers and the “awful lot of evidence out there that charter schools do no better than most public schools.” A flustered Guggenheim, against the ropes, could only admit that, yes, “only one in five are successful.”

A long article that details the racism and paternalism that is being fostered in the underpinnings of the whole premise of "reform", please do take a few moments to read the whole thing when you get a chance.