At a time when a cheerless wind chills the mist and gathering swallows twitter in the approaching dusk, the International Film Festival ushers in an appropriate opening to the beginning of a solemn first day of film and harvest in Toronto.
In high-heeled shoes that pinched, I sat tense and earnest, overwhelmed in the shadows of standing ovations at the Winter Garden Theatre, eyes soaked in tears, infinitesimal in the company of automatic enthusiasts, and birthing reformist. Looking back, I saw myself walking down memory lane in the corridors of Bense Primary school in my beloved island home of Dominica. I saw a multitude of US and Caribbean kids full of dreams, hopes and aspiration…. I had seen the opening of the film ‘Waiting For Superman.’ Davis Guggenheim’s look at what’s wrong with the educational system was not only a wake up call to the problems children face from kindergarten to high school in the US and what is needed to fix it but also a plea to education ministers in the Caribbean letting them know that education is crucial to development and a basic requirement for achieving genuine equal opportunity in a competitive world.
In reminding us that education "statistics" have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of Waiting For Superman, Guggenheim follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, as he undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.
Guggenheim pulls no punches as he makes the point over and over again that bad teachers must be eliminated from schools and replaced with good ones. His archenemy is the teachers’ unions which oppose evaluation of teachers, and the firing of poor teachers.
It is evident that Guggenheim’s film depicts the time has come for a review of the education system not only in the US but also in the Caribbean to better cater to the needs of children, who are faced with increasing challenges because there is a disconnect between children and teaching.
In this regard, Waiting for Superman provides a rethink of the education system from early childhood all the way up to tertiary level. Ironically enough, the same day the movie premiered, the first round of educational grants to states for Obama's Race to the Top program were announced and the government of Trinidad and Tobago allocated the largest slice of the 2010/2011 national budget -- $8 billion to the training sector.
These are worthy footprints for the remainder of other Caribbean islands to follow for the film has made it apparent that US and Caribbean kids are entering an unfriendly labor market without appropriate qualifications, thus increasing their prospects of long term unemployment, poverty and crime.
Even though it is perceived by many that the education system in the Caribbean evolved from a colonial historical legacy which was predicated on privilege; education should no longer serve as a primary device for social selection and class stratification because the attainment of independence and the growth of nationalism, has limited the effects of a socio-political priority and Caribbean education is no longer modeled on the British school system. Therefore, changes to the education system will equip Caribbean schools to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
It is clear that Guggenheim has done what artists are supposed to do in trying to understand this problem. In propelling people to be outraged in his outstanding cinematography, he has disturbed the social order in demanding that schools in America and also the Caribbean are great for every kid. Educational opportunities should not be determined by playing a bingo card to get a good education. There is a chance to be won in having a future in the world by breaking the code on how kids are educated.
September 13, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
