Words matter. These are the best Davis Guggenheim Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I’m not one of these guys who thinks testing is the only thing. But testing is a piece but there has to be more human ways to evaluate what job teachers are doing and we have to do a better job of that.
Our schools are not geared toward building, preparing kids for the modern economy.
The more I work, the more I try to keep myself open like a raw nerve. When I feel things in a story, I want the audience to feel them as well.
If a movie can take you to the place that I’ve been to, and the audience can experience what I’ve experienced, then I feel – success might not be the right word, but I’m satisfied that I did my job.
It’s so interesting, when you’re a parent, you have these big ideals. Before I had kids, you imagine this sort of egalitarian society. You project this perfect world on the path you’re going to set for your kids.
I was a terrible student. When I went to Sidwell Friends, there were 100 kids in my class. I was the worst student, by far. But I had a few teachers who, despite all that, believed in me.
It’s interesting when you talk to someone who has really been through something very, very terrible. They are less likely to talk about it. People who have had a bad day because their soup was cold can talk about their ‘suffering’ all day long.
I do a lot of audio-only interviews at first just to capture a feeling and go deeper, as if you’re having the most quiet, intimate conversation you’ve ever had with someone you love. If I can get that tone of intimacy, then the film will have that.
If you look at great reform, it always starts from parents. If you look at the movement to reform the special education movement, it was driven by parents who were fierce advocates for their children.
As a filmmaker, the most dramatic and the most dread-inspiring thing is when the audience can see more than the characters themselves can see.
The very first film, documentary that I made, was called ‘The First Year.’ It was 11 years ago and I followed these five novice teachers. I was actually with them on their first day of school and followed them for their first year.
I don’t set out to make movies about famous people, though I guess I have. I think what I set out to do is to try to understand things that we don’t understand. Or to find out what is blocking us from understanding things we should understand.
I don’t like it when a filmmaker has an agenda and I don’t know it. When the contract is not clear, that’s when there’s a problem.
You look at the trajectories; and as our schools have declined, you see the other alternatives increase, private school, home schooling, all of the other alternatives are going up.
The good news is everybody believes in education, Republican or Democrat, we want great schools.
