The Ron Clark Story Recap of Ron Clark

With this movie now on my Wednesday list of things to watch (but could potentially be watched on other days, depending on what else might happen or change with the movie watching lists) then I might as well keep track of when I see it in this blog post. This will be the only other time that I plan to write a recap of this movie. While I’ve covered the whole film before, now I will only cover just the perspective of Ron Clark. Then, while when I roll this will still affect blogs in future years, I won’t have to write any more about this beyond what’s already been written. I can just watch for fun again.

 

I wound up rolling this movie and seeing it on 4-7-2021. That was a Wednesday since that’s when this movie was on the list at the time. Since watching a Survivor choice of any sort means updating my TV blog most of the time, that is why you didn’t see my Survivor blog then. I don’t even try to keep you readers updated most of the time as to why this blog is updated on certain times through all of this hiatus of the show. You’ll see posts when you see them.

 

We begin in North Carolina with Ron ready to be introduced to his class. He talks to a kid in the hall who has learned something. After four years at the school, people are bringing in tables from the rain and he is doing what he always does. He started as a temporary teacher, but wanted something permanent. But he wants to leave to help New York public schools.

 

While at New York, he wants a list of the public schools in Harlem. He looks for a job in teaching and gets a job at a restaurant in the meantime where he meets a woman named Marissa. There is also a person there named Jason working there too.

 

Ron shows up to a school where a teacher walks out of his class, quitting after getting into issues with a student who was hitting him. Ron wants to start right away. Ron is given the opportunity to be with an honors class, but he instead picks the lowest performing class that has the lowest test score, being quite wild and crazy. He tells Marissa about them, his new class.

 

He meets various parents of the students. One of them steals from his mother. He has a student from India. He also talks to Shamicka who has some issues with her family life. He arrives for his first day and is dismissed in a way when he tries to talk to another teacher.

 

The class is unruly, but he tries to take control of it. He introduces his first rule: we are a family. The class does not seem to work as well. I could never understand why in this movie or possibly in reality they would put all of the lowest performing students in one class. Do they want them to continue to fail? After seeing his car vandalized, he seeks to take control of his classroom. His principal does not like it and considers it vandalism himself.

 

After talking some with Marissa, he introduces other rules during his class. But it does not seem to go over that well. He talks some with a student who notices another named Julio taking bets as to whether or not he will stay.

 

Ron talks some with the lunch ladies before he gets the class to stay in line in order to get lunch. Since he say Shamicka cut in line, the whole class doesn’t get food until she admits the truth. Later, he sees that the room is vandalized and he talks to the class about it.

 

He sees people jump roping and wants to join, but this is ignored for now. He sees Dashawn and another student fighting. Ron is worried since Dashawn has two strikes already. Ron gets Dashawn to go back to class. Later, at his restaurant job, he becomes an official New Yorker by getting angry.

 

Still, things are not going well for him as no one except one student did their journal. He gets angry at Shamicka and moves her desk around causing him to leave the building. He meets up with Marissa and they do things in the rain. He explains what went on that caused him to leave.

 

After the weekend, it turns out that Ron is back to teach his class. He has a bunch of milk to drink. He will only do this if people are quiet. He tells Julio to do the tapping to signify this while he learns them about grammar. He does drink the milk. I’ve always found this part dumb.

 

Seeming to make inroads with his students, he wants to learn how to double-dutch in order to teach his kids about what all they need to in the future. He talks to Mr. Turner, the principal, about this. He then talks more to his boss about it. Ron promises that all of his students will pass. Later, we see him with a cake while everyone is there to celebrate something. He wants them all to light a candle and this is to show them that they are united.

 

He wants to teach them the then 42 presidents in order. While at his apartment, he notices that there is beat boxing in the background. This inspires him to do a rap of his own to inspire his students after they all fail the test and he does a rap but the version we hear only covers the first three. I could tell you all of the now 46 presidents in order for memory.

 

After the first three of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, the rest of them that we have had are James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K Polk, Zachery Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S Grant, Rutherford B Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D Eisenhower, John K Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, Richard M Nixon, Gerald R Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush I, Bill Clinton (42^nd one or current at the time), George W Bush II, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.

 

 Back to the movie, Ron noticed that Julio had stolen so he orders them to have private study sessions outside of class. He also wants Dashawn to meet at a coffee place. Dashawn considers going there, but doesn’t. Julio still meets with Ron. During this time, he also talks to Shamicka. He goes to her apartment, but things do not go well with her mother who wants Ron kicked out. After seeing that he could help her child, she relents and lets him stay teaching the class.

 

A fight breaks out between Dashawn and Julio. Ron is brought into mediate and helps Dashawn out some later after class. Later, Ron gets a cough and seems bad. He goes to a hospital and is told that he has pneumonia. Despite this, he still goes to class. But he passes out after they first think that he was making a joke. From home, he records four hours worth of videos every day in order to play during class. The principal assists the class with these recordings. He knows the students well enough in these videos to call out some of their behavior.

 

Ron is concerned about the test scores that his students will be doing in the future. He says that they have done well thus far, but is upset that the scores on their current test were bad. He is glad that they were following his rules. Ron talks to Dashawn and gets his student to do the right thing. He also talks to a student who wants to be a doctor. He is nervous on the day of the test. It seems that the students have varied reactions to this as the kids might have done well.

 

Marissa shows up to where Ron lives and is unsure of what advice he should offer her. They do kiss as she is unsure of what to do in her life as the scene is cut short. Ron then hands out envelopes to his students as they all go to the Phantom of the Opera tonight on Broadway, something that all of their parents agreed to, according to him.

 

Ron is concerned about Dashawn when he isn’t at the play. Ron goes after his student and sees the work that was done. Ron then finds Dashawn in the street, crying. Ron stays to help Dashawn since Dashawn was beaten up by his foster father, sending him to a new home. Ron talks to his boss about this and his boss promises to find Dashawn a place.

 

At the end of the year, Ron gives awards to his students. He is told that this class tested higher than any other class, including the honor class. He tells Shamicka that she got perfect scores in both English and Math. Me is glad for her. She is then giving him a reward on behalf of the other students in this class. We learn that his students did well and he learn that his book, The Essential 55, was a best seller. He also got to open The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. I wonder what the total 55 rules are since we did not see them all in the movie. Maybe I’ll have to get the book and read it some time.

 

While I do get annoyed at the romantic subplot since it goes nowhere and is such a non factor that they could have removed it without removing the character in question related to it, what is annoying about it is a change known as straightwashing. As shown on Survivor, Ron Clark is clearly gay. Yet the movie seems to portray him as straight. This is a problem. It is not as bad as whitewashing or at least it might seem that way since we don’t know if it is as wide spread or not.

 

That’s all for this blog post since there really isn’t too much else to say. I wonder who else might show up on Survivor based on a show or movie that I have on DVD. I do know that Wyatt Nash has made quite the name for himself as an actor, leaving behind his old Survivor identity. And I think that I have a cousin who is into Chase Rice’s music so I might have to check that out at some point too. It was just nice to have this in my existing collection when Ron appeared on Survivor. And it wouldn’t have happened if my mother got me the right thing the first time. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.