Self-Interest, Waiting for Superman, and The Help

by Russ Masterson

The documentary, Waiting for Superman, is about the decline in American public education when compared to other countries, or even our own history of educational success. The film maker documents the failure of schools but also a handful of schools that are succeeding, including some educators who have started charter schools that are no longer bound by the restraints of teacher unions. Meaning, the schools can hire and fire teachers at will, pay different salaries, financially reward good teachers, and financially punish others, amongst other progressive rights and changes.

Now, according to the documentary, the teacher unions began decades ago when teachers needed to fight for some basic rights and systems to be put into place for their benefit, but today the unions are powerhouse political machines that protect the teachers’ self-interest at the detriment of the students. This self-interest is seen in the inability of educational leadership to create much of any change to the system and the teachers in the system. The unions simply don’t allow it, and they put political pressure on whomever they need to in order to make sure change that will create discomfort for teachers is not allowed. All of this is of course self-interest that eats away at the very good the teachers began teaching for, the unions were created for, and the education the students need. (This is all according to the documentary and not to my personal research so forgive me if I don’t give another opinion on the issue of unions and the cause for our education problem.)

Now, on to my same point in a second film. Last week I watched the movie, The Help, based on the New York Times Bestseller book titled the same. The film is about segregation and racism in the everyday life in the South in the 60’s. The movie shows the humanity and goodness of a group of black women who work as maids and nannies to upper-middle class white families. These black women are good enough to care for the children but are not allowed to use the same glasses the white people use to drink water or the same toilets the white people sit on, not to mention public restaurants and schools.

An undercurrent in the film is the idea that many of the white people knew the entire system of segregation and prejudice was wrong, but they were unwilling to say or do anything about it – for fear of being socially rejected or even violence coming toward them. This was a real fear that threatened the white people’s jobs and families. We all behave in response to fear, and I’m not sure if I’d have the courage to stand for what is right in that sort of climate — I hope so, I really hope so, but I’m not sure. And my point is I think it is important to recognize the danger of such self-interest. When we don’t fear self-interest we instead fear anything that challenges our comfort, which then in turn releases self-interest to destroy some measure of good in our society, family, or life.

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