The Ron Clark Story

I have to deal with this thematic field of "education" during studying term; and this film is very important tool for understanding the inner world of teacher's heart and mind and his daily struggle against rebellious children. An excellent, extremely interesting film of a teacher in the New York City school system.While the movie is terrific and a joy to watch, it is unfortunately unrealistic.The New York City school system is in a quagmire and no one has been able to solve the problems.Nevertheless, we have a true story of a teacher who did make a difference. From North Carolina, Ron Clark had a definite calling for teaching. He comes to New York and takes on a class that no one wants. The students are way out of control. Clark gets it right by putting down the rules. Did you notice how quickly most of the class turned from being recalcitrants to ardent listeners? Unfortunately, this does not happen in 99% of our classrooms in the city. In addition, teachers do not get the support of supervisors as at first shown in the film. The latter does an excellent job of showing the home environment of the pupils. Obviously, from dysfunctional homes, this type of environment is not at all conducive to learning. Mat Perry is excellent as the idealistic teacher who certainly is so sure of himself except for that moment when he temporarily lost it. It is also obvious that the students that Clark had were capable of doing the work but were severe behavior problems. Notice that everyone must have been reading on level or knew how to read to be able to comprehend what he was discussing. Yes, he brought the material, including the rap music on the presidents to their level but there had to be an innate ability to begin with. Clark tried to work with the abilities of his students by concentrating on the positive. Speak to our New York City teachers. It's not happening the way it happened in Clark's classroom. Isn't it unfortunate that someone with Clark's talent left the city to form an academy in Georgia? Another problem in this system is that the most creative teachers are leaving to the world of supervision or just plain quitting.I would like the producers of this film to do a follow-up on the rest of the system. It should only be as good as this film. This film did not show the role of the assistant principal and guidance counselor in the school. For sure, these students were in need of professional help. A therapist was needed as well. The movie did bring out that the principal was solely interested in exam scores. Notice that he chewed the teacher out in front of the students. How do you expect students to show any kind of respect when that occurs? I also observed that there was no talk of co-operative learning. The bulk of the instruction came from Mr. Clark itself. Try that today in a New York City classroom and your headed for trouble. Am sure that the teacher of the honors class had to answer to the principal when Clark's class did better on the statewide exams. I wouldn't want to be in that teacher's place. This film was created to show us the real problems of education and up-bringing. Withing the surface of clarity and calmness there is a huge stream with rapid flow of problems. And Ron Clark was born to stop the river's anger and roar and turn it into peaceful lake of harmony and student's dedication.