Waiting for Superman free essay sample

I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us. † Just as many children look up to fictional characters such as Superman, parents rich or poor, look up to our school system to educate their children. However, too many of these parents are beginning to realize that proper education, like Superman, is nonexistent. In Waiting for â€Å"Superman,† Davis Guggenheim addresses the teachers union about the failing public school system in America. Through the use of ethos, anecdotes, statistics and visual and audio elements, Guggenheim attacks a problem too precious to let slip through our fingers. Davis Guggenheim is a father. A father who chose to put his children into private education, but with good reason. He has experienced the public school system and how it’s teachers operate first hand. In 1999, he produced a documentary about these teachers, so he knows what conditions he is working with. We will write a custom essay sample on Waiting for Superman or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is a key component of Guggenheims ethos since he has the bias of a father who wants proper education for his children just as most other fathers would. He builds upon this by featuring well known, powerful people into the documentary. These people include: Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates. Each adds their opinion to the subject. Geoffrey Canada is an educator who admit evens his first few years of teaching were rough. Because Canada states this, the audience is reassured that he knows what it takes to be a successful teacher. What better way to address the teachers union about the importance of high performing teachers than with a high performing teacher? Then there is Michelle Rhee. Rhee was the 7th new chancellor for the Washington D. C. public schools system in 10 years and claims she â€Å"knows they’re [kids] getting crappy education. † Her approach to changing the school system is more harsh than Canadas, but Rhee’s views are still important. By including a more political view of the problem, Guggenheim expresses his understanding of the multiple components that come with trying to solve it. And of course, we can’t forget Bill Gates. In fact his view may even have the most impact of all. Bill Gates is rich, extremely rich. He may have dropped out of Harvard University, but he’s rich. So it may seem senseless to include him in a documentary that is trying to prevent drop outs right? However if Gates was able to drop out of a prestigious college and then go on to be the second richest man in the world, what does that say about education? Perhaps if every child was given the opportunity to receive the same education Gates had, by the next few generations the U. S. could be spewing with millions of â€Å"Bill Gates† ready to become billionaires. These three individuals are great components that establish a strong sense of ethos for the film, but the personal stories of the five families’ struggles are what truly making it moving. Guggenheims use of pathos in the film is horrible. Horrible in the sense that the audience is sucked into a black hole of empathy for these five families. There is Anthony the boy who lost his father to drugs. Bianca, the little girl who couldnt graduate. Daisy, the girl who has the brains but not the school. Francisco, so adorable it breaks you’re heart he can’t receive proper education. Emily, the one who is almost out of time. It’s not a coincidence all of these children have at least one challenging condition they live with everyday. Nor is it coincidence that every single one is so darn cute. Guggenheim uses this pathetic appeal to his advantage causing the audience to empathize. Near the very end, Anthony is asked why he wants to get accepted. â€Å"I want my kids to have better than what I had I wanna go to school. † This one clip sums up a kids view of not being educated. It shows they are being forced to grow up because of the conditions they live in. With this, Guggenheim implants a gut-wrenching feeling about how terrible our country is for depriving these children from perhaps the one positive alternative in their lives. Once he has filled your brain with these array of emotions, Guggenheim humorously â€Å"enlightens† the tone with statistics. In many different parts of the film, Guggenheim takes a break and turns to cartoons to explain specific topics and other stats about our school systems. Some of the most important argumentative cartoons is about tenure. He first includes clips from The Simpsons and also School of Rock just to show how completely outrageous the idea of tenure is. These are comic relief, but there is a subliminal message. Each clip includes a teacher sitting back, telling the kids to teach(tend) to themselves and of course the kids do nothing. This symbolizes that as long as the U. S. continues to accept and protect crappy teachers, schools will produce failing students. Another tenure related cartoon was about â€Å"the lemon dance. † It includes characters with bodies of a teacher but the head of a lemon dancing around from school to school getting thrown out do to their lack of teaching skills, only to end up in another school where he cycle starts over. Again, Guggenheim uses this to mock the ridiculousness of tenure since it essentially causes â€Å"the lemon dance. † Parents wouldn’t allow their child to eat a sour lemon, so why should a lemon be able to teach, or in this case dance? All of these elements are like the leather pieces of a shoe. Sure, they look nice alone, but a shoe is only a shoe if the laces are tie d. Like laces filling the holes in those shoes, the visual and musical effects in the film create a huge emotional impact. As mentioned before, Guggenheim’s use of anecdotes is key. With these personal interviews, the camera angle is neither above or below the subject. It is a dead center, close-up view of raw emotion. This allows the audience to feel as if they are in a one-on-one conversation with the parents or children . So you can sense every flinch of pain, every hint of sadness in all of their voices and facial expressions. Guggenheim also makes effective use of â€Å"B† roll in the film. Often when he is narrating about the schools or family conditions, a school or neighborhood is being screened. The schools are completely run down and resemble miniature jail houses. The neighborhoods are also run down, lower income parts of town. What is interesting about this, is that in the first three minutes of the film Guggenheim drives past three public schools while taking his kids to their private school. Each public school is gated in, like a jail. Then the private school’s gate is wide open as if to symbolize an open pathway to a promising future. With this Guggenheim also has specific music selection including Green Day’s American Idiot representing America’s high ability to be over confident. He also includes the song Taking Care of Business as sarcasm to former presidents signing education reform bills. Which is ironic since the audience is well aware of the fact those bills definitely did not â€Å"take care of business. † Without the specific video archive and music selection, this documentary would only have been half-way effective and Guggenheim has realized there is already enough half-way effective products in our country. Davis Guggenheim has money. Davis Guggenheim has the privilege to choose. Davis Guggenheim chose private education for his children. Waiting for â€Å"Superman† immerses our population into the lives of those who don’t have the money or the choice to provide their children with proper education. Strong, emotional use of ethos, personal anecdotes , statistics and visual musical effects pulls Americans through the painful reality that our schools are failing students, failing our future. â€Å"Our system is broken and it feels impossible to fix but we can’t wait. The steps are simple. † Thanks to the work of Davis Guggenheim ,our country may finally start to realize that the future can’t be placed in our hands if we aren’t taught how to use them.