In 1999, Davis Guggenheim made First Year, a documentary about teachers and public schools. He was impressed by the dedication of these young teachers. Now, ten years later, he had to think about schools for his own children to attend. In spite of his commitment to public schools, he chose to put his children in private schools. With that he decided to revisit his ideas of public education.

Waiting for "Superman" is the third education documentary I've seen this year. (You might want to also see my reviews of The Cartel and Race to Nowhere.) People are concerned with problems in the educational system. In many ways it is failing both the children and the wider society. What makes schools work or not work is a very complex issue. Even the question of how to know if the schools are working or not is an issue open to debate. We could probably also try to tackle the foundational question of the very purpose of public education, but that is way beyond the range of a feature-length film.

Waiting for "Superman" focuses primarily on teachers as the cause and cure. To be sure, it recognizes the complexity of the problem, but has chosen the role of teachers and charter schools as the way to deal with the problems of education. The director has good reason for this focus. Issues of tenure and effectiveness have a significant effect on performance of students. The power of the teachers' unions to shape policy and/or block change is a question that needs discussion.

But the real framework of the film is not the teachers or the statistics (although there are plenty of those), but several students who are trying to get into charter schools. When charter schools have more applicants than spots available, the students to be accepted are chosen by lottery. The film suggests (but never really says) that these students' futures are dependent on being chosen. Most of these students are from the inner city; one, however, is from the suburbs. The lottery system provides the film with a sense of suspense—which is overdone a bit.

Guggenheim makes a case for looking to the best charter schools as models that may offer some hope for the problems facing public education. That really isn't a surprise, though. It should be noted, as the film does in passing, that only about one-fifth of charter schools show excellent results. (We don't see any failing charter schools here.)

He also notes some of the problems that will need to be overcome, but not all of them. He sees the entrenchment of the teachers' unions as a major problem. Charter schools, of course, are free from the requirements of union contracts. The unions, however, have a great power to prevent much of the systemic change that will be needed. The film tries, with limited success, to differentiate between the wonderful teachers in the public schools and the unions which protect the teachers that are less than wonderful.

The film fails to make a case that the kinds of things that are taking place in charter schools can be replicated on the scale necessary to revamp the education system. Guggenheim argues that we have overcome barriers in the past, but he fails to offer any paths we can take. He also never gets into the funding of the massive change that would take place to remake the educational system. In a time when many schools are cutting days off of school years because there is not enough money, it's hard to imagine how to sell the ideas of lengthening school time.

Like the other two films I've seen this year, Waiting for "Superman" is helpful in that it shows us a part of a very complex issue. It is also helpful in that it allows us to talk about the problems we face as we strive to find ways to educate children better and more equitably.

Two other documentaries I would recommend both show amazing things that can happen when good, dedicated teachers touch their students' lives. OT: Our Town, (2003) tells of the first school play put on at Dominguez High School in Compton, California, in two decades. The Hobart Shakespeareans (2005) shows a fifth grade teacher who each year leads his students in the production of a Shakespeare play, and opens their minds to worlds far beyond their neighborhood. Both of these films deal with teachers who are working within the system that seems in this year's film to be so broken. And the lives they touch and the things they teach are things that can never be measured on standardized tests. This side of the story also needs to be part of our consideration as we look at the trials facing our educational system.