The Ron Clark Story tells the real-life saga of a top-notch grade school teacher, Mr. Ron Clark. Having achieved great success with students in his local suburban North Carolina hometown, Clark believes that he can do much more good outside of his small home town, so he moves to New York City, hoping to teach underprivileged grade-schoolers there. But being Caucasian is a drawback in Harlem and none of the New York City public schools will hire him. Destiny intervenes one day when he observes a teacher getting rough with a student who is trying to leave campus. The teacher fights with the school's principal and quits. With a job vacancy right on the spot, Clark instantly made his availability and capability known to Principle Turner of Inner Harlem Grade School only to be declined at first, but was finally given a chance. He is given a class that includes what everyone considers to be the "losers and beyond help," the worst of the worst students in the school. But how is it possible that the underperformers, the most unruly, and the unstoppable troublemakers turn out to be the top-scorers? What did Mr. Clark do to help unlock and unleash the potential of these disadvantaged children? Why was his teaching so successful?
As portrayed in the movie, the steps he takes, the approaches he makes, the energy he extends, and the devotion he shows produce the miraculous outcome. Essentially, Clark is an unconventional teacher, and while his patience goes beyond normalcy his teaching crosses the boundary of teachership. Recognizing that his students are heedless, headstrong and rebellious, Clark is willing to take the time and trouble to begin from the very basics, the golden rules, teaching his students to love each other like a family and to respect one another. In class, Clark does everything that can humanly be done to draw the attention of his students to the lessons, even going so far as to promise to drink a box of chocolate milk every 15 seconds during the whole sessions so long as they listen to him—which he did—and putting his job on the line by refurbishing and decorating the classroom of his own accord to render the environment more learning-friendly. He also applies another unorthodox approach to teaching American history to his students, helping them remember the presidents and the events during each presidency by singing and memorizing the hip-hop history lyrics he made out of the content of the tedious lessons in the textbook. After class, he reaches out to the students that everyone, including their parents, has written off, spending time to help them with their homework and preparation for the final exams. At last, he successfully brings out their strengths: the artist, the scientist, the math, the English whiz. Best of all, he makes each of the children aware of their own self-worth. He gives them more than a textbook education. He teaches them to dream big and take risks, and he gives each one of them the knowledge that they do matter, and that when they put their hearts and minds to it, they can achieve anything—and they did. All in all, Clark’s teaching success story derives from innovative and adaptive teaching methodology, his creativity and responsiveness together with his inspiring, at one time, and touching, at another, passion and commitment.
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