Waiting for ‘Superman’

Waiting for ‘Superman’ uncovers the failures of the US public education system by following students and documenting their struggles and triumphs within their academic settings. It seeks to promote more stringent accountability both for teachers and charter schools as an effective solution to America’s educational crisis.

The film’s premise is simple and straight-forward. It follows five young students who are the part of the public school system. It also interviews a group of prominent and experienced educational reformers on how to improve the American educational system. Waiting for ‘Superman’ exposes an array of complex, complicated, persistent, and multi-layered historical and societal problems. It reveals that the two major problems of education are bad teachers and the unions that protect them. The ease with which it is possible to secure a tenure and the bureaucracy involved in reprimanding poorly performing tenured teachers are the reasons why many American children do not have a high-quality education. The film methodically dissects the system and successfully explores its seemingly intractable problems.