Waiting For Superman Book Report

Improved Essays
Structure and Content
As a companion to the film, Waiting for Superman, by Davis Guggenheim (2010), the book, edited by Karl Weber, (2010) is comprised of essays from people who are at the leading edge of educational reformation which are; Davis Guggenheim, Lesley Chilcott, Bill Strickland, Eric Hanushek, Eric Schwarz, Michelle Rhee, Randi Weingarten, Jay Mathews, Geoffrey Canada, and Bill and Melinda Gates. Each essay brings to light their own success story and possible solutions to the problems facing the American education system that has less than half of the students finishing college. Weber (2010) introduces first how the United States was ahead of other countries in the 1950s but lagged and then fell behind during the next few decades. Weber (2010) highlights the problems of our education system and how it does not compare to foreign schools and fails to
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7). The book then delves into the history that began the process of how the movie came about and includes a section where the director of the movie, Davis Guggenheim, talks about his own history of film making. Guggenheim then explains how he first refused to take on this project but then negated on his decision after realizing he was circumventing the situation of the failing public schools in his own neighborhood by taking his own children to a private school (Weber, 2010, p. 28). As this new project goes on Guggenheim explains of how he worked in humor into the documentary as with the facts that our schools lag behind in every subject then lead all countries in confidence and has the film quickly cut to YouTube videos of reckless acts of young Americans attempting ridiculous stunts that do not end well. The book then enters the lives of four children and the problems they and their families have encountered in their attempts to receiving a decent education. The reading includes a chapter that explores each child’s background and the support they are receiving from their

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