Deep Spirits

GenerousGeorge wrote:As I have mentioned before, Sam Harris in "Letter to a Christian Nation" has hit the nail on the head Dermot. As the quote I remember from somewhere finishes up.... "It takes religion to make good people do bad things."

If everyone got a not just better but truly good education, then religion would simply never stand a chance. Take psychology and philosophy, two subjects that are crucial to thinking and to the development of thinking and learning, and as far as I know they are not even being taught in US high-schools!"

For a nation that proudly declared it would leave no child behind, America continues to do so at alarming rates. Despite increased spending and politicians’ promises, our buckling public-education system, once the best in the world, routinely forsakes the education of millions of children.

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.

However, embracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, and ultimately questioning the role of unions in maintaining the status quo, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind.