{"id":79,"date":"2010-10-01T09:51:04","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T09:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/waiting-for-superman-arrives-with-a-bang-at-theaters-as-the-media-turns-its-light-on-education.html"},"modified":"2010-10-01T09:51:04","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T09:51:04","slug":"waiting-for-superman-arrives-with-a-bang-at-theaters-as-the-media-turns-its-light-on-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/waiting-for-superman-arrives-with-a-bang-at-theaters-as-the-media-turns-its-light-on-education.html","title":{"rendered":"“Waiting for Superman” arrives with a bang at theaters as the media turns the spotlight on education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education is finally getting some deserved attention from the media with both high-profile film and television projects hitting the big and small screens virtually simultaneously.<\/p>\n

At the movies, Waiting for Superman<\/a> <\/i>previewed last weekend with the highest per-screen box office of any movie in the country. Opening in just four theaters (two in New York, two in LA), it reportedly averaged about $35,000 per screen — placing it way ahead of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps<\/i><\/a>, the overall number-one movie which reportedly took in about $5,000 per screen in 3,500 locations.<\/p>\n

The documentary which takes on the education establishment, particularly teachers’ unions, seems poised to garner the same level of financial success as An Inconvenient Truth<\/i><\/a>, Al Gore’s environmental opus.  Coincidentally (or not) the two docs were both directed by Davis Guggenheim. That’s interesting because conservatives tended to be skeptical of Truth <\/i>while liberals threw every honor they could at it (including two Oscars<\/a> — best doc feature and best original song). Those opinions are likely to be nearly exactly  reversed (at least in elite circles) regarding Superman<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Being a conservative, I’m more or less pre-sold on the basic arguments put forth by Superman  <\/i>and  hope all the attention and controversy it arouses leads to some serious reforms in the way we educate American kids — which, the films notes, now rank 25th in math and 21st in science among 30 industrialized countries. American kids do, however, rank #1 in confidence. Confidence, of course, being a good thing — so long as it doesn’t become delusional.<\/p>\n

BTW, for more information on Waiting for Superman<\/i>, you can check out the film’s website here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on television, NBC recently launched its Education Nation<\/a> campaign and will debut its new reality show School Pride<\/i><\/a>, best described as Extreme Makeover: School Edition <\/i>in two weeks (Friday, October 16th).<\/p>\n

And premiering tonight at 10 PM ET on A&E is another education-themed reality show called Teach<\/i><\/a> which follows actor Tony Danza (Taxi, Who’s the Boss?<\/i>) as he, cameras rolling, runs a 10th grade English  at Philadelphia’s Northeast High School. Danza, it should be noted, actually has a degree in history education. <\/p>\n

While the producers, Mr. Danza and A&E may have their hearts in the right place in focusing attention on the challenges both teachers and students face every day, I’m a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a real-life classroom being subjected to the glare of TV — and to the medium’s need to stir up drama.<\/p>\n

In fact, I’d rather see Danza’s TV comeback come in the form of an actual scripted dramedy dealing with education along the lines of the classically-idealistic Room 222<\/i><\/a> that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1974. (That show, BTW, also featured a great opening sequence and score<\/a>, a lost art in current TV shows.) <\/p>\n

Drama, particularly when it comes to ongoing series, is often better-suited to illuminating real-life issues and situations than reality shows which, too often, end up exploiting real people.<\/p>\n

In any event, education is one of the most important issues facing America — and worthy of the media’s, and our, attention. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. 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