The Ron Clark Story Movie Review

One Christmas, my mother messed up and got me a movie called The Ron Clark Story instead of what I had actually wanted: Front of the Class. Still, I watched this movie once and kept it for future viewings. Now that the person the story is about has done Survivor, I might as well review this movie in question by watching it again and posting it in this blog. I may yet see the movie again in order to do more of an in-depth analysis on the character of Ron Clark. Now let’s get to the movie.

The movie starts in North Carolina with Ron showing up for his first day of class. He sees a student in the hall. He offers advice to this student. Four years later, we get to a celebration having to be moved in the school instead of outside due to the rain. They show a surprise for him outside. It is a parking spot since he is no longer temporary at the school. He decides to leave this old school since he feels he is needed more in New York. He bids farewell to his parents and drives there throughout the day and night.

Ron wants to teach in Harlem. He is more or less told by someone at the place he lives at that it is not a good idea. He gets rejected at some schools and doesn’t know what to do with his life. He winds up at a restaurant where he works and see a woman named Marissa. It is a themed restaurant with him as Robin Hood. While wondering around the city, Ron notices a teacher quit on the spot and tells the man who is the principal that he can work there since he helps raise test scores. He wants a troublesome class as he feels that they need him.

Marissa has issues with types of harassment at work. Ron then wants to meet with different parents of the kids before he starts teaching them. He meets with Julio’s mother and various other parents. He sees one who takes care of her siblings when her mother is busy.

At his first day of teaching, he doesn’t get much love from the other teachers that are nearby. It seems that all of the students are disrespectful and not expecting him to stay around. He introduces his first of his many rules, “we are family.” It doesn’t take long for the class to descend back into madness.

Ron changes the room, but this isn’t appreciated by his boss. He also notices that his car was vandalized. He talks to Marissa about this as he moves. Back in class, he goes over his three rules. The second one, “we respect each other.” The third rule has them forming a line to go places. He creates a fourth rule about no smacking of lips or rolling of eyes to help teach Shameika, the leader of the class, what not to do and how to treat others. Later, he talks to one of his students and then sees Julio taking bets on when he’d leave. He goes to the lunch ladies and makes sure that they are in a line before he lets them leave. After Shameika cuts the line, he makes sure that she tells the truth about it before the rest of the class gets food. This is now his fifth rule of teaching. He notices that the room is vandalized when he looks at it later.

Ron talks about the vandalized room and need to follow rules. The girls in the bathroom talk about their distaste for the teacher, although one of them admits to liking him. Ron says that Shameika is good at jump rope when he sees her do this. He notices that Julio fights during class and doesn’t want him to be punished since he has two strikes.

The students don’t have their journals done and even the one who did it hides it from Ron. Shameika causes more issues in class which leads him to being more confrontational than he was wanting which gets him to walk out of class, much to the delight of a lot of his students.

After leaving the class, he meets with Marissa to show him around town. He admits that he shook the desk and wanted to throw it and Shameika out the window. He also wonders why Marissa wasn’t doing any of her auditions for acting roles. This leads him to go back to class since he figures that they can do a lot, they just won’t. He gives a speech while back in class about listening. He does a weird lesson about grammar where he wants no one to talk and he’ll drink milk once every 30 minutes if they obey. What’s with this? I have no idea why this is in the film at all. It seems rather dumb.

Back at the playground, Ron wants to learn how to double-dutch. After some failed attempts, he does start to learn more of how to jump, which he does with Shameika. He then talks to his boss who had some issues with his methods. Ron’s boss thinks that he’s acting too childish.

There is a cake and celebration of sorts with Tate not feeling up to the promise. Ron wants to teach them about the presidents and after they all fail the test, he does a rap about it, inspired by hearing his neighbor playing rap music. His students cheer and join his president’s rap. Even the shy student seems to be more enjoying of herself in the class too.

After another class period, he gets Julio to empty his pockets due to Julio being a thief. Ron wants him to show up to private study sessions and shows up where Julio is hanging out with the idea to show up at a restaurant later. Julio shows up to his session after Tate’s was set to be at, only Tate didn’t show.

Ron talks to Shameika after she doesn’t show up to her study session. He winds up at her apartment. When her mother returns, she feels that she has to stop to make dinner. He makes it instead. When her mother comes back and stays, she wonders what Ron is doing there and thinks that he’s criticizing her parenting abilities. Ron and Shameika’s mother then talk with her in the principal’s office. Shameika then speaks up for Ron, not wanting him fired. He talks to Miss Wallace about her child and feels that she could help with her daughter Shameika’s potential.

Ron admires an art project that Julio made. Tate gets upset at him, assaulting him. Ron wants the best for Tate and argues against an expulsion. He is able to help the two of them as a result. Tate seemed to be more upset at himself than anyone else.

Ron winds up getting sick and he needs either bed rest or hospitalization. Despite the doctor’s objection, he goes to class anyways. They can tell that he’s sick as he tries to teach despite this. He even passes out during class, which his students first mistake for a joke since he was teaching about gravity. This leads him to being taken away in an ambulance. This leads him to using a camera to record lessons in advance of these classes. The principal shows these videos which reveal how well he knows his students.

When he returns to class after his sickness is over, he talks about the upcoming state exams and how he thinks that they aren’t doing as well as they could be. He feels that they lack self confidence. He wants them to do better than they’ve been when he was gone. He gives them a motivational speech.

Worried about Tate, Ron checks up on him. Tate chooses Ron over his old “friends.” We then get to the big test in general. Ron and other teachers are nervous. After the test, Marissa comes over with coffee. She got an audition and wonders if she should leave with Jason, her boyfriend, I think. He wants to just dismiss her and kisses her, leaving her confused.

Back at the class, the students find a surprise in the closet where they have envelopes that they open. Ron is taking his class to see the Phantom of the Opera. Tate gets in trouble with his foster father after he puts art on the wall leaving this man to beat Tate. Ron notices that Tate is missing when the rest of his students see the play so he goes to where Tate lives. Ron finds Tate on the street. Tate is crying and upset over this, but Ron is there for him.

Ron takes Tate to where the principal lives so Tate has a good and safe place to stay at for a while. We then get to Ron giving awards to his students in question. Ron’s boss comes inside during this in order to give him the scores of this class. They did higher than any other class, including the honors class. He then gives an award to Shameika who got the highest score in both English and Math. Marissa shows up to this class at the end. This movie ends around here with his students singing the President’s Rap.

What are my thoughts on the movie? Well, I don’t know why exactly Marissa is in this as she doesn’t have much of a purpose outside of being a potential lover interest that goes nowhere. Plus, Ron is gay so I don’t know why that is there either. Tate didn’t seem to be as developed a character as he could have been and I confused him with Julio some of the times I’ve watched this. Maybe that’s more of my issue with that. Other than that, the movie seems to work well. I wonder why they didn’t just start with him in Harlem as that might have made more sense.

That’s about it for this post. I had actually rolled this movie last Wednesday. When I roll something that is Survivor related, I update my TV blog on that day. Hence, there was no post of this blog last week since this movie is now a Survivor related thing. I do plan to watch it again sometime where I will do a post about the movie that will only cover Ron’s perspective. That should be all of what I have to do of any special Ron Clark related posts unless he dies or becomes a returning player. I have no idea what might happen with that just now. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.