Waiting for "Superman"

When I began this documentary I didn't know what to expect, but the film quickly grabbed my interest. As i watched, I became more informed about a life that I have fortunately never had to experience. I spent most of my education career in a small charter school in which every student was helped and challenged and became successful in their own way. When I did finally attend a public high school, I was lucky and was sent to a school that gave me lots of opportunities and helped me succeed. The film Waiting for "superman" told about the lives of children whose entire future was dependent on the school they got into. Even the smartest children would have trouble succeeding if they got sent to a bad public school. One girl, Daisy, wanted to be a doctor or a vet, but she did get into the school she wanted making it so her dreams will be harder to achieve. Learning about the life of these children caused me to put my own life in perspective. I have been very fortunate and lucky my entire life. The schools I attended helped me to push myself and do better and better and now they have made it possible for me to get accepted to a high quality college. The chart below shows dropout rates in the USA and even though the percents might not seem huge, the US has such a large population that that is a scary number of students not even completing high school.

Status dropout rates of 16- through 24-year-olds in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population, by race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1990-2010
Year	Total1	Race/ethnicity
		White	Black	Hispanic	Asian/Pacific Islander	American Indian/Alaska Native
1990	12.1	9.0	13.2	32.4	4.9!	16.4!
1995	12.0	8.6	12.1	30.0	3.9	13.4!
1998	11.8	7.7	13.8	29.5	4.1	11.8
1999	11.2	7.3	12.6	28.6	4.3	‡
2000	10.9	6.9	13.1	27.8	3.8	14.0
2001	10.7	7.3	10.9	27.0	3.6	13.1
2002	10.5	6.5	11.3	25.7	3.9	16.8
2003	9.9	6.3	10.9	23.5	3.9	15.0
2004	10.3	6.8	11.8	23.8	3.6	17.0
2005	9.4	6.0	10.4	22.4	2.9	14.0
2006	9.3	5.8	10.7	22.1	3.6	14.7
2007	8.7	5.3	8.4	21.4	6.1	19.3
2008	8.0	4.8	9.9	18.3	4.4	14.6
2009	8.1	5.2	9.3	17.6	3.4	13.2
2010	7.4	5.1	8.0	15.1	4.2	12.4

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16

Many People after completing high school go straight into the work force and get a job instead of a career. One of the parents in the documentary, who had only ever had a job, had learned from her own experience and found it very important for her child to go to college and get a career. When parents encourage their children to get a higher education, the children will usually want to, but then the menacing problem is what public school the child is sent to, because this is what determines their educational fate. About 50 to 60 percent of US students go to college. This means that the other 40 to 50 percent most likely get low paying jobs right out of high school, or don't even graduate high school in the first place. 

Seeing families suffer the way they did in the film and then learning more about the horrors of our public education system makes me feel very lucky that i have made it all the way to school and makes me want to help change the system that we have in America.