Students not waiting for 'Superman'

Noelle Pollard and Natasia Smith, proud seniors at one of Long Island's poorest school districts, aren't "Waiting for Superman."

They made that clear during a community discussion following a screening of the documentary at Wyandanch High School on Tuesday.

The pair was part of a 10-member panel that included parents, teachers and administrators. They stole the show.

Pollard, 17, wore the multicolored hair of an artist -- a discipline she intends to pursue in college. Smith, 17, bound, eventually she said, for medical school, was wearing a black and gold McDonald's uniform from work.

But when the young women spoke -- honestly, passionately, fearlessly about their years in the district -- elders in the room fell respectfully silent.

Smith and Pollard said they were upset by the film's depiction of anxious families waiting for a child's fate to be determined by a lottery. Lucky families celebrated the jump to charter schools; unlucky ones cried.

"Nobody's future ought to be determined by a ball and a wheel," said Smith, emotion rising in her voice. "I'd rather you tell me to work a little harder than put my name on a piece of paper or in a bowl."

Smith and Pollard have seen the film many times, including during a bus ride to Albany to protest state cuts in school aid.

"We live some of that movie," Smith said.

"It shows some of the bad but it also shows some of the good, which is that there are students and parents who want a good education," Pollard said.

"I don't need a charter school to get a good education," said Smith, taking on what she saw as the only choice offered desperate families seeking better schools in the film. "I need teachers who come at us hard, who push us," she said.

"We need teachers with a backbone," added Pollard, Smith's best friend since elementary school. "I was pushed by one teacher to the point where I thought, 'This woman is crazy!' " she said, drawing chuckles from the crowd.

Both also said they understand the importance of good parenting.

Smith's mom was single until five years ago. "She sat down with me a long time ago and told me that she will not rest until I graduate from college," Smith said.

Pollard's parents attended Wyandanch. Her mother went to college; her father dropped out of high school. "He tells me not to make the same mistake he did," she said. "She tells me she knows I am going to make it."

During the discussion, Pollard said that a lack of parental involvement -- an issue in Wyandanch and other districts -- shouldn't have to be a barrier to students.

"Some of us need that support, that push in school because we are not getting it at home," she said. "I love my public school, but there are students here that have got to be motivated."

Smith was unapologetic about her views on teacher tenure, a hot-button issue in the film. She does not believe in it.

"We succeed here every day with the people who care for us," she said. "There are teachers who give off the feeling that they are only here to get the paycheck and that is not right if they are taking the place of teachers who are fresh and have passion."

But how can Wyandanch -- bedeviled by school board politics that have divided the community -- get there?

"We need to come together as a community and everybody's heart needs to be in it," Smith told the audience.

Smith has applied to several colleges, including University at Albany and Buffalo; Pollard wants to go off to The Art Institute of California, Hollywood. But college won't end their commitment to their hometown.

"I am surviving the struggle," Smith said, with a nod to Pollard, a friend so close they frequently completed each other's sentences. "When I get out of it, I want to let everybody else know they can get out of it too."