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Follow on Google News | Opinion: Why This ‘Superman’ Doesn’t FlyA shallow oversimplification of the problems plaguing U.S. schools, writes eSchool News editor Dennis Pierce
By: Dennis Pierce, Editor “Remarkably, in a documentary spanning nearly two hours, Guggenheim doesn’t interview a single classroom teacher about what’s wrong with American public education,” Pierce writes in his editor’s column for the Nov./Dec. issue of eSchool News. As a result, “what emerges from these interviews is a reinforcing of tired, old stereotypes about how unions are blocking much-needed reforms … but very little new insight.” By presenting teachers’ unions as “a menace and an impediment to reform” (a direct quote from the film), Guggenheim “creates the kind of two-dimensional villain that you’d expect to find in a comic book featuring the hero mentioned in his film title,” Pierce writes. “And [Guggenheim] These include meeting the various requirements of a diverse group of learners, many of whom have special needs or speak English as a second language—and giving teachers the tools and support they need to be effective. “If Superman’s contributors thought highly enough of teachers to listen to their concerns, they’d learn that teachers are crying out for more support,” Pierce writes. “In one of the largest-ever national surveys of public school teachers, commissioned by Scholastic Inc. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and released in March, fewer than half of the teachers surveyed (45 percent) said higher salaries are absolutely essential for retaining good teachers. More teachers said it’s essential to have supportive leadership (68 percent), time to collaborate (54 percent), and high-quality curriculum (49 percent).” It’s time we had a deeper, more meaningful, and far more introspective conversation about what it will take to improve our nation’s schools, Pierce says—and one that addresses the issue of funding in a more responsible way. “Let’s also be honest about how much it costs to attain success,” he writes. “At least two of the charter school projects featured in Superman, Locke High School in Los Angeles and the Harlem Children’s Zone, get much of their funding from private or corporate contributions—[ At eSchool News Online, which has been reporting on school-reform issues for more than a decade, the editors have created a new platform for holding this important conversation: “The challenges facing public education today require responsible, thoughtful, multifaceted solutions that involve all stakeholders working in concert—not shallow responses or agenda-driven reformers with superhero aspirations,” To read Pierce’s entire column, go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/ About eSchool News eSchool News covers education technology and school reform from a variety of perspectives— Contact: Dennis Pierce, Editor, dpierce@eschoolnews.com End
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