possibly the thing that pissed me off most about waiting for superman
which is not to say the worst thing, necessarily (though I kind of felt like the movie, I don’t want to say got a bad rap because there were huge problems with it, but I didn’t quite consider it a major championing of charter schools as a solution for everything. but I mean, that is sort of a minor quibble with the mostly spot-on criticisms).
but the thing is, I’m no expert but from everything I can tell Geoffrey Canada is amazing, legit, and harlem children’s zone does great work (although the question of whether it’s replicable on a larger model, given the private funding it receives, is… well, as things stand it’s unfeasible, but to echo Jonathan kozol’s repeated point, YEAH IT WOULD BE FUCKING AWESOME IF SCHOOLS IN UNDERSERVED NEIGHBORHOODS GOT THAT KIND OF FUNDING ON THE REGULAR). but the movie didn’t mention ANYTHING that it does other than the charter schools. it doesn’t mention the parenting workshops, the preschool program, the healthcare services, the youth violence prevention work… it just talks about the schools. and the schools may well be awesome — but they’re serving children and families who are also able to access all this other support. I mean, to have a film about the education crisis and not mention how fucking beneficial high quality preschool has been shown to be especially for low-income families? what? just.. what? Harlem children’s zone is not (just) a charter school network — it’s a network of community and family support that lays more groundwork for children to be able to succeed in school. and it drove me bonkers that he spent all this time interviewing Geoffrey Canada and didn’t see fit to mention this even once.
