Well, that is a difficult movie/documentary to review. I cant say this is a masterpiece but it is not as bad as some people claim. Lets start with the positive things. There is a concrete idea about the US education system problem (I am not saying the idea is right or wrong. There is an idea). The presentation of the idea is fine but for something to be called "documentary", I would expect more evidence about the proposed claims. Some potential solutions are also presented and they sound like there is a way to fix the problem. Looking at the negative things, the list is longer I am afraid. First of all, I was confused about the status of the private education (as someone not living in US). At the beginning, I felt like the whole movie will be about how great the private schools are and how bad the public education is. It didn't go in that direction but the target was certainly the public schools. The attack on the unions just doesn't feel right. If your system does not let you show the stick, you can encourage people with carrots. Instead of trying to force teachers out of the unions by offering more money, it is possible to offer more money for better performance. Therefore, the proposition "we were going to fix everything but the unions didn't let us do" sounds childish and blaming unions for the performance of teachers is quite one-sided (as most reviewers point out). I agree with the "better teacher for better education" idea but the proper way to have better teachers is not bribing them to leave unions. Instead, one can offer performance based promotions and better education for teachers (yes, education of the educator). Anyways, the last ten to twenty minutes were really pointless as well. To sum up, the movie is pointing a problem but the way they try to propose potential solutions is somehow problematic.
Review of Waiting for Superman
