'waiting for superman,' rage

'waiting for superman,' is a documentary that points out some major flaws in the U.S. public education system.

and when i was done watching it i was filled with rage. but i don't exactly know who or what i'm mad at. if i had only one punch in the face to give for all of this, i wouldn't know who deserves it the most. i wouldn't know which one person is more to blame than anyone else.

and if i had unlimited punches in the face to share, i fear i'd totally exhaust myself before i got around to making sure that everyone who had it coming got their fair share.

not that i'm one to punch people in the face. in fact, i've never done that in my life. and though i can visualize it, i can't say that i know how to punch someone in the face cuz i'm untested up to this point in my life. i don't wanna punch anyone. i wanna try and fix problems instead of making them worse.

but i have so much anger and i don't know where to direct it all.

i could start with bad teachers. if teachers were a sport team that i rooted for, i imagine me, espn, and the sports blogosphere would fearlessly call for the firings of anyone who we feel doesn't make the cut. as soon as the team does cut them, they would go out and find someone else who's better at that position. and that's sports. what teachers have to deal with is way more important to society as a whole (even though paychecks unfortunately don't mirror that concept).

also, we should be more passionate about the good teachers. they deserve a lot more praise and gratitude than some millionaire stranger who scored a game winning touchdown last sunday.

but even if our schools try and fire bad teachers, they run into a confrontation with the teachers' union.

before i continue, i'd like to note that for the most part i am a pro-union dude. i'm all for workers' rights. we wouldn't have great stuff like weekends, vacations, and benefits without unions. even if you don't belong to a union, the existence of unions have paved the way in some shape or form for most forms of employment in the U.S. so that's good, right?

but why do unions so valiantly fight against the firing of bad teachers? they're doing the job wrong. so now i'm mad at the unions (and a little mad at myself for being so pro-union that it took me seeing this documentary to even budge from my total pro-union stance on this issue).

i can definitely point some anger at the government. they've provided the atmosphere to allow it all to get this way. every president, governor, senator, and congressman/woman talks the talk when it comes to education... but if you look at the current product, it's hard to think that many of them walk the walk.

and i'm sure i can direct more anger towards administrative types in the education system... the principals and superintendents that push pencils but won't push the status quo. they stand on the front lines and see the war at hand and see how bad it's looking for us but won't call for backup because that might offend a commanding officer above them.

i could direct some anger at parents. parents play an interesting role in all of this because in one sense they're totally victims. but i'm sure many a blind eye has been turned to the scene at hand that involves the education of their children.

but why stop at the parents? i don't have kids... but that doesn't excuse me to stand idly by and let shit fall apart. education = future. whether any of us like it or not, we all got a stake in that. we're all part of a foundation for things to come. if a good number of us don't care enough to make some fucking noise about this, how will shit ever get fixed? it'll all be doomed to only get worse.

and maybe that's what angers me more than anything.... we're all to blame. it's right in our faces and we all made a silent agreement to do nothing about it.