Most consider the likelihood of winning the lottery not very high. The drop of one numbered ball contains the power to manipulate what may be a person’s entire future, giving the individual an opportunity he or she might not have otherwise to buy a house, afford college or have a chance to make a name for him or herself. The drop of that small ball has the power to change a life.
In Academy Award Winning director Davis Guggenheim’s new documentary Waiting for Superman, which hits theaters on Oct. 8, Guggenheim uses a metaphor of the lottery to portray his beliefs in the corruption of the current American school systems.
Waiting for Superman follows five families from different areas of the U.S. as a child from each tries to get into the one good school available to him/her.
According to Guggenheim, in his metaphor, the kids around America in universities won the lottery. He imagines that college students everywhere will identify with the fact that it is unfair for others to not have access to a good education and presents a “civil rights problem.” Through Guggenheim’s documentary, he calls for everyone to fight so that all people have a chance at a good education.
At age five, young Guggenheim, a St. Louis native but a current D.C. resident, came home from school and asked his mother, “Why do I take a 40-minute bus to Virginia for school every day?” His mother replied, “Honey, because our schools are broken here.”
If you look at the story of our country, it is a story of success. Public school was a ticket to be the first in your family to attend college. They used “an elevator up,” according to Guggenheim.
There are 1,000,200 dropouts every year, walking the streets without a diploma. Schools are structured to track the top 10 percent of students in middle schools and place those boys and girls in the most prestigious programs in high school. Good teachers understand everyone deserves a chance to succeed and can perform at a high level, according to Guggenheim.
“It haunts me that, as a country, we haven’t been able to face this.
Our schools are really in trouble. It is morally wrong to fail so many kids and also, morally unsustainable. I want people to say, ‘Because I saw this movie, it is possible for me, as a citizen of my city and state, to take action’,” Guggenheim said.
According to Guggenheim, too many people feel this mission is impossible.
They feel that the schools have been broken for too long, so most people react one of two ways: either they stick their heads in the sand, or they act out of self-interest, as Guggenheim is in the making of his documentary exposing the injustice.
In order to help and find solutions to the problems at hand, visit Guggenheim’s official website, waitingforsuperman.com/action, for a list of things that can be done in every area to promote change.
