Movie Trailer to be Released- The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman

There's been lots of excitement in GEMville over the last few days. We finally finished the trailer for our film last night and expect to release it within the next 48 hours. We are also working on our performance art and will announce a rehearsal and follow-up performance tomorrow of our song "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?"

I got a call from a teacher going home on the bus yesterday who said she was so excited when she saw the lyrics. We hope people can join us as we announce the dates. Imagine a performance of hundreds of people on the steps of Tweed? Maybe only a dream but not impossible.

As for the film, now that the trailer is done we have to start editing the massive amount of footage we have accumulated. There is a story line being developed. We expect the film to run about 28 minutes and hope to make it available to schools and groups that request it - would be a great lunchtime event. We're aiming for an end of October release but since all the other people involved other than me are working educators, we will see how it shapes up. And then I also got a part as Vinnie the whinney, whimp, henpecked card player in Rockaway Theatre Company's upcoming production of The Odd Couple and rehearsals are starting - and all the other actors have been in scads of shows and this is my first. So why do I feel that I never retired?

I'm going to be at the UFT Chapter Leader meeting today passing out the new GEM newsletter and more info about the film and performances so stop by and say hello if you will be there.


Here is what I posted the other day.

Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?

Real Reformers have been working to counter the Waiting for Superman and MSNBC Education Nation (see NYC Educator today: Ship of Fools.)

GEM has been organizing around this and working with parents and teachers around the city to produce out own movie. Look for the trailer to be released at the GEMNYC blog and Ed Notes in a few days. GEM will also be organizing performances at various locations in the city of the eminem song "Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?" with lyrics rewritten by the GEM crew. While singing, some people will stand up for Real Reform with these signs:

7 "real reforms" 

     

Real Reform #1:  Smaller class size

Real Reform #2:  Excellent community school for ALL

Real Reform #3:  More teaching less testing

           

Real Reform #4:  Parent empowerment and leadership

Real Reform #5:  Equitable funding for all schools

Real Reform #6:  Anti-racist education policies

Real Reform #7:  Culturally relevant curriculum

Here are the lyrics. Start warbling (and if you want to know when and where these "surprise" performances will be taking place, email me off line.)

May, I have your attention please?

May, I have your attention please?

Will the real reformers please stand up?

I repeat, will the real reformers please stand up?

We might have a problem here…

These deformers don’t gotta real plan in their pack, but we do

We reject their agenda and you should too!

You think they have ideas for real reform?

Half them been looking for ways to make cash since they were born.

“But guys, what if its not lies, wouldn’t it be great?” (nerdy voice)

Why, so these guys can sell their charter plate?

Mess with our kids’ future fate?

Naw, Superman is here and not too late. (sarcastic)

Klein, Rhee and Duncan better switch us jobs,

So we can put an end to those hedge fund hogs.

They put teachers on blast in the newspaper?

“ all you need is quality teachers…. deerrrr!” (mocking voice)

We will expose their agenda and open your eyes

And show the world their drive to privatize… (yell:  ahhhhhhh)

sick of the law and pr groups all you do harms kids

So we have been sent here to expose you,

And there’s a million reformers just like us,

Who teach like us, who have kids like us,

who care like us, real reformers for just’us

just trust us, parents and teachers unite like us…

Cause we the real reformers, yes the real reformers

All you other deformers are just speculating

So won’t the real reformers please stand up,

Please stand up, please stand up? (reapeat 2x)

Waiting For Superman Challenged by Teachers in San Francisco: An insult to teachers and students

Before I get to this report, I wanted to give you an update on our own actions here in NYC in response to the film – at least what I am at liberty to say right now. GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) is moving ahead on our own film – The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman – which we hope to have completed by the end of October. Hopefully the trailer will be finished in time for the Superman release next week. We will debut it here on Ed Notes. We are also working on some songs around the theme of the "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up" and might even perform it in various locations and meetings. We will be looking for volunteers to join in so start gargling. We may even have instruments. If you are planning to see the film it is opening in LA and NYC on Friday, Sept. 24 and will be showing at the Lincoln Square cinemas near Lincoln Center. I can write the rave reviews from the anti-union press right now. Some of us are going that night so we can produce a fact sheet to refute the inconvenient truths for our movie. Email me for details if you want to join us.

An insult to teachers and students

September 14, 2010

A NUMBER of members of Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU) and a few leaders from our union, United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), attended the advanced screening of Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman.

We were there to pass out some leaflets and challenge the director of the movie, who would be speaking at the end.

What about the movie?

Yikes! Let me try and summarize: The problems with public education is bad teachers, the tenure that protects them and the unions that protect tenure. The problem is not funding, because plenty of money has been thrown at schools to succeed. The solution is charters. Also, there is some criticism of "tracking," which is probably the only part of the movie I agreed with.

That's about it. When Guggenheim took questions afterward, he opened with the fact that he was a "friend of public education," that he liked unions, and that he was not saying charters were the answer.

The problem was that the entire thrust of his movie contradicted that. It was crazy.

UESF leaders and EDUers were able to get questions out to him that challenged the frame of his movie: Why are you attacking unions? Why don't you mention funding? Or the larger political questions facing the country?

Guggenheim was mostly patronizing, saying that he couldn't include "everything." Regarding unions, he said he was in a union (the Director's Guild) and he supported unions and the protections they provide. Presumably, he is for protections for everyone except teachers. He also called himself a leftist, saying that believed in social justice...after bashing unions and teachers.

I stuck around afterward to invite Guggenheim to come to Mission High School and actually see how public education works to serve our neediest students. I also told him that I was disappointed by his attack on unions, which had been the only protection many of us had this year when the budget ax came swinging down.

I overheard him talking to an aide saying "Wow! This was a tough crowd." She replied, "Well, it is San Francisco."

I was surprised by this, because he had only fielded four or five questions at most. We hadn't even started!

Finally, for a movie titled Waiting for Superman in which "Superman" is supposed to be a great teacher (white and male, I guess), this movie did not contain a single interview with a teacher. It had a grainy camera inside a class which showed teachers reading a newspaper. It showed clips from School of Rock and the Simpsons but no teachers

Who was interviewed? Principals of charters, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and, of course, Bill Gates' ugly mug was all over the movie.

My final question to Mr. Guggenheim is, if you are really "Waiting for Superman" why do you spend so much time in your movie interviewing Lex Luthor?

Andy Libson, San Francisco

http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/14/insult-to-teachers-and-students

Still Waiting for Superman

Things are heating up over the upcoming release of the pro-charter, anti teacher union Waiting for Superman film. A bunch of us had a conference call tonight to discuss a reaction for teachers and parents calling for real reform.

Here are some links I put up on Norms Notes.

Dan Brown on Waiting For Superman

This is the most important part of his essay-- the part that might actually influence what happens in American classrooms-- and it's simplistic to the point of uselessness. I know that Guggenheim is a movie director and not necessarily a policy wonk, but by making Waiting For Superman he should assume responsibility for the reforms he's pressing. His recommendations are so vague that many would-be reformers can and are using the same language to promote untested, potentially dangerous initiatives.

Susan Sawyer's Waiting for the Truth

 the film's conclusion is as simplistic as it is misleading: charter schools are good, and public schools, as they stand currently, are bankrupt. We knew from some of our own reporting that New York City was home to a collection of successful and innovative public schools that could challenge this assumption. But even more curious, the film undercuts its own message midstream by reporting that "only one in five charters is producing good results."

charter schools are funded through a combination of public and private funds, but they are independently run. They are not subject to the same level of scrutiny or accountability as traditional public schools.
Furthermore, many charters have been criticized over the years for making little to no room for students with special needs or English language learners. These students tend to be sent instead to low-performing public schools, further eroding their chances for success and the school's ability to improve.
Other school success factors go unmentioned, such as access to healthy food, exposure to rich language, a safe neighborhood, a stable home life and a supportive community. As in any story, there's only so much space or time to make a point, but still.

 his film promises to enlighten audiences about the educational injustices school kids face. It will inevitably leave viewers moved by the plight of the children, yet also unable to see any workable solutions beyond creating more charter schools.
That's more than inconvenient. It's tragic.

From Gotham Schools

• “Waiting for Superman” director Davis Guggenheim thinks teachers are most important. (HuffPost) - 

At my house the other night, the suspense was more intense than a thriller. My wife, daughter and I were huddled over a computer in the kitchen. I had control of the mouse, but clearly I wasn't going fast enough scrolling down the list, because my wife snatched it from my hand. Then my daughter shrieked, "Mom!, it's right there! See!!!" There it was, the list of fourth graders and which teacher was assigned to each student -- her little nine year old finger, hunting for her name. She saw it first and starting squealing, then my wife jumping up and down (I've always been the slow reader) But yes, yes!!!! It was there. We got the teacher we wanted. I joined in the celebration high five-ing my daughter, but more importantly my wife because we knew the single most important factor in determining her success this year would be the teacher she sees at the front of the classroom each day.

I wonder if Guggenheim's daughter would be so excited at the teacher she is getting if she went to a KIPP school? Then again, is he saying that the school he sends his daughter to has teachers who are not all excellent? What is it about this particular teacher they are so excited about? High test scores? How does he define "success"?