Educational Issues
Elizabeth Milne Tabb High School
Elizabeth Milne has been a classroom teacher for almost 20 years at Tabb High School in York County, Virginia. She has taught all levels of high school English, and film classes; coaches forensics, and one-act competition plays; sponsors a literary magazine, and a student activist club; is an instructional trainer, and an administrative assistant, and likes to be involved with all aspects of her school. She has a Master’s in Educational Administration and Leadership from George Washington University. In her spare time, she writes poetry, collects jewelry, and tries to hide her superhero status.
Forget Superman, Batman is Already Here!
While Davis Guggenheim is Waiting for Superman, he is missing out on a lot of Batmen and Bat- Women. Even though Superman tried to disguise himself as the nerdy Clark Kent, he was still from another planet. He could fly, he could stop bullets, he could start fires with his eyes (ok, a good teacher can do that) but he was not human. Now Batman, on the other hand, is really Bruce Wayne, someone who went into his heroic career for mostly altruistic reasons. With the help of Alfred, his older, wiser mentor, Wayne saves the world in a more realistic way than Superman. He uses specially prepared tools and equipment, plans for emergencies, and loses a lot of sleep making sure that during the day, everything runs smoothly, and no one sees him sweat.
As a teacher of film, I know that documentaries are biased, and it would be incredibly difficult to present the entire picture of an issue as giant as education in one film. That is like saying that in 90 minutes you could explain all that was wrong with politics today. The small focus that Guggenheim presents, in a heart-tugging way, is schools are bad because teachers are bad, and teachers are bad because they have tenure and the NEA protects them. Are there bad teachers in education? Of course. Are there bad doctors, bad secretaries, bad lawyers, bad housecleaners, bad business-people, bad homemakers, and bad film-makers? OF COURSE! Tenure is an issue. However, most teachers I know want bad teachers out of the classroom as well, regardless of tenure. The union, which has different powers in every state
Spring 2011 Vol. 8 No. 1 Virginia Educational Leadership 13
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