This powerful new documentary by Davis Guggenheim (Oscar Winner for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’) contends that the American educational service is failing, and failing badly. Something we have heard many times before but usually from rabid aspiring politicians bandying around their own distorted dogma whilst seeking to get one over their opponents. However Mr. Guggenheim is much more specific, and armed with the reality of some rather alarming facts and figures, does not shirk from telling us what is wrong and what is right.
He is quick to demonstrate that it is not all doom and gloom, and points out that there are some bright spots on the horizon (albeit not many) and the movie focuses on two of them: Geoffrey Canada an awe-inspiring man who deliberately chose the poorest part of Harlem to open his Academy, which has been an unqualified success. And there is Michelle Rhee a fiery young woman who was appointed the Schools Chancellor in Washington DC and fearlessly pursued real change and progress with the whole local Education system seemingly pitted against her.
And than there are Charter Schools, not perfect in anyway, but compared to the generally poor achievement levels in many urban Public Schools, they offer a glimmer of a hope and a chance for disadvantaged children to get ahead. The trouble is that places at such schools are few and far between, and so by Law the schools are required to run a lottery to decide who gets in and who doesn’t it. The film follows the hopes of 5 young people and their families right up to the actual lottery, and I would defy anyone not to watch the outcome without reaching for a Kleenex or two. To see some kids whole future being determined by a numbered ball dropping into a Plexiglas box is heartbreaking; if you cried watching the kid’s anguish in ‘Mad Hot Ballroom’ then you’ll bawl your eyes out here.
★★★★★★★★★★
Labels: documentary, political
