The Ron Clark story - 2006

I like it a lot, I admit it. It’s a simple story, a little film, but also important and likable.  The writing after the end says it’s a real story and a real man and everything, which seems so hard to believe. This world has made me suspicious and harder (well, compared to my little-girl-days) : kindness is so rare nowadays, because let’s face it, not many people believe in it, not really. They do as an idillic concept, but in reality it’s like this: if someone is kind to a person, that person will wonder: are they hitting on me or do they want something from me? And on the other hand, if you’re that someone, would you be kind without wondering if they’ll think you’re flirting or trying to borrow money or whatever? Or even, sometimes you want to help people but the world makes it too hard for you. I know there are many good-hearted people in the world, but thing is sometimes bad people make so much damage they make it hard to believe there’s something else, better, on this planet. 

This film is the story of a teacher who chose to work where he was most needed; he moved from North Carolina to New York and ended up working in the worst class of an Harlem school. (Sure, one could wonder why he thought that children in famous&important New York needed him more than  other poor children in less-famous-therefore-less-important cities of the United States, or even if he would have become famous had he kept helping/teaching children in North Carolina or such less renown states, but let’s move on). A class of twelve years old kids with such difficult situations at home that it made them hard and reckless and hopeless. Mr Clark gave them back their hope, he didn’t give up on them like anybody else, he believed and even more importantly made them believe they could do it. The kids didn’t pay any attention, they would lie or steal or fight or be generally openly hostile, but he insisted, trying everything to catch their attention and interest. First he had them follow rules: either form a neat line to go to lunch or you won’t eat at all, but strict rules were not going to work just like that, so he tried harder: drinking lots of chocolate milk promising them the chance to see him throwing up, always fun for twelve years old kids, and them the Presidents rap, to make history fun to learn. He went to each house, he did extra lessons; he helped poor Tayshawn (Brandon Mychal Smith) when he was beaten up by his foster dad, he convinced Shameika (Hannah Hodson)’s mother that she was a special girl that only needed time to study to become a brilliant student. Kids not only need, they want someone to care about them, to give them rules, to be proud of their successes, to show them they take real interest in them. It’s touching, I like it. The way the kids get serious about learning, interested; that sense of pride for each thing they learn or get right. The way Shameika went from “go to hell” to “please don’t fire Mr Clark” and “please don’t leave because of me Mr Clark”. I liked the scene when he convinced her mother that Shameika was brilliant, when he told her she might get admitted to a school for ‘gifted kids’. I know it’s not a big movie, but it’s a good movie anyway.