I had looked forward to this documentary, but was sadly disappointed by how shallow it was. Guggenheim appears to take the neocon view that the problems with public schools in America are the teachers' unions, pointing to a handful of charter schools, which don't have to hire union teachers, as shining lights. Melissa Anderson sums up the shortfalls of this film in this Village Voice review.
I haven't watched it, but the people who made it were on Oprah months ago, and it sounded very anti-teacher. Just blame it on the teachers.
ReplyDeleteIt was odd that Guggenheim, who did a documentary 10 years ago on public school teachers, would take such an adversarial position to the American Federation of Teachers, essentially blaming them for all the ills in the public system since they wouldn't go along with Michelle Rhee's Draconian approach to overhauling the DC school system.
ReplyDeleteInstead of looking at the many problems in the public school system, he essentially holds up the anti-union charter school system as a way out of the impasse. Makes you wonder if he thinks Walker is Superman for defeating the teachers' unions in Wisconsin?