Waiting For Superman Structural Functional Theory

“Waiting for Superman” Public schools, or state schools, are meant to be an easily accessible form of education no matter what walk of life an individual comes from. In the beginning, this was a concept that was very well-received as well as well-executed, leading America to become one of the top educated nations in the world. However, as time has worn on the system has fallen into disrepair and it shows in our ranking in Math and Reading dropping to nearly the bottom of the lists. In the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” possible causes for this were explored as families from poorer areas across the United States were interviewed and their journeys to look for a better education were recorded. By applying, the structural-functional theory …show more content…
It is used to focus on the large level social structures, the patterns of social behavior, and functions, social patterns for how society operates as a whole (Macionis 13-14). This approach focuses on the big picture as opposed to the tiny details. The structural-functional theory recognizes two types of functions, manifest and latent. Manifest functions are the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern while latent functions are the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern (Macionis 14). One function of the public school system is to make learning and education easily accessible to people in all walks of life. It is intended to be open and available to anyone without adding the stress of paying for tuition to families that may already have financial …show more content…
The movie follows a majority of families of color as opposed to white families. This is because white families, and specifically white males, are born into privileged lives and have little need to work for what they want or need. Contrastingly, the families of color that were followed in the film had to work extremely hard to get their children even a small opportunity to have a better life. The stories of Francisco and Daisy exemplify this. Francisco is the son of a single mother who has two other sons besides him. She works as hard as she can in order to for them to have their best chance at the best education they can have. She was even willing to have to wake her son up at five in the morning every day in order to make it through the forty-five minute commute and have him at school on time no matter what. Comparatively, Daisy had many high aspirations for such a young girl and her family encouraged her to follow those dreams and make them reality. Even though, she enjoyed going to school and loved to learn, her family believed that she wasn’t getting enough out of her current public school. Both Francisco’s mother and Daisy and her family sat through lotteries to try and get a spot in the private schools of their choice. Unfortunately, as with almost all of the other families that were followed in the documentary, their number was not