Waiting for Superman

So I've been really in to documentaries lately. In the past two weeks, I've watched Food, Inc. and Restrepo, and today I decided to watch Waiting for Superman. It is a documentary about the education system in America. It just absolutely blew me away. I never knew any of this stuff about the system. Like I knew that inner-city schools weren't doing as well as other schools, but I had no idea that there are schools all over the country that have 40% or higher DROP OUT rates. It also amazed me that these kids' futures were decided by a lottery system. Why do the good schools have such few spaces if they have so many applicants? It seems to me that if they're getting so many applicants, they would have the resources to open up their schools and make them bigger to give kids a better chance. The lottery part of the movie was just heartbreaking. The looks on the kids' faces-- they were so hopeful and then so disappointed. This film just really made me appreciate everything that I have had in my life. I know that a lot of people take their education for granted, but you just can't do that, and this movie just really brought that all to light. Also, the kids and their families that they were following were so inspiring. The kids actually WANTED to go to school and better themselves, and their parents were stopping at nothing to get their kids the best education that they could. I know that not all kids are like that, but it is just great that there are people who really value their education. I just loved this movie...more than I thought I would. It was just riveting, which you don't always get with documentaries. Also, I feel like they actually paid close attention to the look of this movie. Sometimes I feel like with documentaries, the cinematography is basically just an afterthought, but this was different. All- around just a great, moving and inspiring movie.