'Waiting for Superman' to save schools

Harlem-based education reformer Geoffrey Canada, who comes off as a sort of schoolroom superhero himself in the epic "Waiting for Superman," recalls the saddest day of his childhood: When his mom told him there really was no Man of Steel and he realized that no one with enough powers and abilities was going to save his ravaged South Bronx neighborhood - whose various woes included a school system that perpetuated poverty.

In providing the title to his remarkable film by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"), Canada also makes the salient point that fantasy has dictated American thinking about education, that someone, from somewhere else, was going to bring the school system back from the brink.

Guggenheim's film - which defines how nonfiction cinema can be buoyant, engaging, suspenseful and, yes, cinematic - focuses on those heroic souls who, in the face of public apathy, ignorance and medieval union rules, are tapping the potential of students who would otherwise be forsaken. And that those students, written off so often and by so many, can flourish, given the right set of circumstances. It is a movie about hope, rather than despair.

It's also a documentary that's already benefited from and accelerated a national discussion about education, which has generated hours of airtime devoted to the subject, and some curious reactions: Guggenheim, whose first film was about schools (and who is responsible for such diverse projects as "It Might Get Loud" and TV's "The Defenders"), has been accused of not making a film extolling all the good things about American schools.

That would have been a bit like making a nature film about nonendangered species. No one denies there's something cancerous within our school system. And "Waiting for Superman" is an exhilarating diagnosis, and prescription.