On October 3, 2011 THE Fort Valley State University College of Education (CoE) showed the screaming of "Waiting for Superman". Following the movie there was a panel discussion about it.
"Waiting for Superman" was an interesting documentary. There were both good points and some over the top ones. One of the biggest points being made in the film was that public schools are not successful. Therefore, instead of improving the public school system, more charter schools and boarding schools are coming to existence. Now the public schools are being shut down. So instead of giving students an equal opportunity to get an education, in the public school system, they have to depend on a lottery type system to try to get into these charter and boarding school; failing to realize that the way out of poverty is not by chance. The horrific thing is that the public schools are being shut down because there are so many bad teachers in the system. But why are all these "bad" teachers being hired? Why not eliminate these "bad" teachers and put the competent ones that are being sent to these charter and boarding school back in the public school.
Another thing that stood out to me was the issue on pay. Why pay teachers more for their greatness, doing what they are suppose to be doing in the first place? Having the understanding that educators do not get paid a huge salary should make teachers do their job for the love of teaching and not for money. At the same time, teachers who are not doing their job correctly should not be getting the same salary as the ones who are taking their job seriously and for the love of teaching. I appreciated the fact that there were so many parents that showed concern in their children lives. To see the passion and hope that these parents had for their children was just amazing. I did not agree with those parents who were trying to get their sons and daughters into a boarding school. Younger children should not have to be sent off to go to school, they are not attending college.
A great point that was made by the panelist was that diversity is essential in the schools. It is important for students to see what they will see in the outside world. For instance, in the outside business world there will not be only women, only African American, or only Caucasian in the business world. Therefore, students need to be able to interact with a diverse group of teachers.
