Waiting for Superman

No, this is not some out-of-the-blue post about my dating life, or lack thereof!

There is a new documentary coming out today (in lucky locations with more citizens than Sioux City) about the public school system and how some of the worst public schools set kids up for no future.  I don't think it's a surprise to most of you that I'm a bit of a bleeding heart liberal, especially when it comes to the massive inequalities suffered by poor children because of where and to whom they were born.  I am so excited to eventually get to see this movie.

Waiting for Superman

But meanwhile, they have a cool pledge system going on - if you buy a ticket, you get $15 worth of donorschoose money, and if you merely pledge to see the movie you get $5.  First, there is a cumulative corporate-sponsor donation based on the people who pledge to see the movie.  It stands at over 100,000 right now, resulting in a variety of supply and book donations to the nation's schools.  Second, you get to take your pledge/ticket money to donorschoose and select a specific school project to support.  The descriptions not only tell you about the project, but specify if the school is "high poverty."  If you stop and think about the requests, they are incredibly sad - like grade school classrooms asking for a set of books they can read together.  Shouldn't this be a given?

So I pledged, and with my $5 I selected a classroom in Washington that is proposing to buy a few digital cameras that the young students will use in a variety of assignments, with the teachers planning on analyzing the results to better understand the kids' perspectives of the topics so that they can shape their teaching to help the students learn better.  I love the concept of reaching out to different learning styles (e.g., visual, kinesthetic) rather than sticking with the classic verbal learning, and I loved that the teachers involved specifically mentioned wanting to understand their students better and improve their teaching styles.  But I was really torn between that and a teacher who wanted to buy a list of classic early-reader books (that I remember loving!) to give her eager but below-grade-level readers something fun to practice on.  She talked about how time invested in reading being the absolute best way to improve their skill level, but having nothing available that would capture their imaginations and give them something new to practice with.

Anyway, I got a follow-up email this morning that the project I chose reached its goal, and the cameras will be purchased this weekend and in the classroom for use on Monday morning.  I enjoyed reading about the movie and seeing the trailer, I had a great time reading about the proposed school projects and choosing one, and it didn't cost me a penny.  (Although I may go back and pledge some of my own to the one with the books I loved as a kid - how sad to have students who want to read, and know they need to improve, but have nothing to offer them.)

So check out the website for the movie, think about pledging, and do a little something to improve the education of some kids.  We're supposedly a nation of equality of opportunity, after all.