Journal - Waiting for Superman

Waiting for “Superman”

This was a very interesting and informative movie regarding the school system across the United States.  I became an employee of the Duval County Public School system when my youngest daughter was in First grade.  Being such, I have seen firsthand some of the things that were portrayed in the video.  I think one of the worst is the fact that it is next to impossible to fire a bad teacher because of tenure and/or the Union.  I thought the way it was portrayed, the lemon dance, was pretty funny and very accurate.   A principal can surplus a bad teacher, but because of tenure and the union, that teacher is placed with another school.  The movie showed a district in New York that has what has been labeled the “Rubber Room” where bad teachers are assigned until the district is able to complete their termination papers which is said to take an average of 3 years.  I do not think that Duval has such a thing, but have seen teachers assigned to a school where they were not assigned classes or any other duties.  Another thing that I found informative was the Charter schools.  I actually learned something in regards to them.  I truly had a completely different idea of about these types of schools and would like to learn more about those in the Duval School District.