Weclassy

# August 26, 2010 / 4:21PM 27 notes

this trailer made me diva gasp at the end. and if you can make me diva gasp, i’ll probably watch you. once upon a time i was a social justice analysis major (read: nerd) and i spent a lot of time working with some of these dc schools. eventually, i gave up - which i guess makes me a horrible person.

shiningstar:

katespencer:

This is the trailer for a documentary about education in the US called Waiting for Superman. I only watched it because I had to for work and it ended up making me cry. I will see this movie.

If all the “activists” who protest against gay marriage and a community center in a city in which most of them do not even live channeled their energy toward protesting and rehabilitating the state of our education system, our country could actually turn into a decent place. That makes me sad. (I guess I could do something about it too, but I’ve got a lot of Twilight fan fiction to read and True Blood to watch.)

Keira and I saw this trailer this past weekend, and it reminded me of something I always forget. Before beginning first grade, I was part of a public school lottery. There was one magnet/accelerated (read: acceptable) elementary school in my area, and I remember understanding that if my little number was not called, I was going to end up going to a school that would do nothing for me. My number, of course, was not called. As my dad puts it, “it was just so sucky.”

In what I’m assuming was an attempt to give my academic future a fighting chance, my parents enrolled me in the Desegregation Program; a program that bussed little black city kids into the white suburbs for school. The school was good and my teacher was good, but first grade was the final proof my parents needed to see that as a “gifted” child, regular old school was not going to cut it. Thank the lord for the PEGS (Program For Exceptionally Gifted Students) program—a small gifted program housed in a public school and the only program of its kind in the country at the time. I started PEGS in second grade and remained in it until the end of high school. PEGS really, really, really changed my life.

Watching the Waiting for Superman trailer breaks my heart because no child or family should have to face a potential future of academic mediocrity. Ever.