Do you still remember your school's song? I do. =)
The movie 'Lean on Me' is one of the best pedagogical movies that I ever watched. In this movie, we can see that school can be a battle field for some children and the environment may not be conducive and effective for learning. In this kind of environment, most of the students will become miserable and poor in academic.
'Lean on Me' is actually inspired by a true story. It tells us how a principal controls and changes his school. It is awesome and not every teacher can do it.
Mr. Clark is an experienced teacher who is invited by his fellow friends to get back to his old school in New Jersey. He returns to the school after 20 years he left the school. The environment of the school currently is not as good as before. In fact, it is way worse. He is there to make changes to the whole school. When I watch the scene where he comes back to that school, I question myself,"Is he going to succeed?"
The way he controls the staffs, teachers and students is very harsh. But I don't think it is a bad way to control them. If we live in that kind of school, I think we will do the same. Mr. Clark looks like an autocratic leader and a mean teacher but he knows his goals very well. I remember one of his lines which is "If you can't control it (school & students), how can you teach it?" What he says is absolutely right. Teacher control is very important to make sure the students listen to the teacher and learn. In this case, teacher's authority is needed and learner-centered can't be used.
Although Mr. Clark is a very serious person, he actually concerns about the students.
He concerns about students' interest. In this movie, the students do not like the school song and they do not even bother to memorize the lyric. The students find the song is boring and they prefer to sing the song as an acappella song. They love it that way. For the students' sake, Mr. Clark assigns the music teacher to teach all students to sing the school song the way they want. That is a great decision.
The way he touches the students is very special. We can see the result is printed through the students' behaviour. He changes the students from zero to hero and he manages to help the students to pass the state examination as well as makes the students believe in themselves. He provides high motivation to his students and he trusts them. It seems like he brings the miracle to the whole school hold the students' hand to walk to a better future.
This is actually a nice movie where it portrays to us how a newly appointed principle tries to take control of the school which is having a lot of disciplinary problem. Although the way he applied to manage the school teachers and students is consider harsh but in the end he able to succeed in his attempt to make his school students to pass the examination. Really a great job done by the principle that doesn’t care others talks bad about him but he want his aim to be achieved in the end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think sometimes tough love is needed especially in a violent environment. Mr. Clark also said one thing which to me is very significant, “If you treat them like animals, they will act like one!" That is his logic and I really make sense to me. Although he was harsh, I can see the rational of his actions and he had a vision for the school and it was realized. The most touching thing is his students gave back their love for him at the end of the movie and respected him. I think this is what most teachers want: appreciation and respect.
ReplyDeleteDo I remember my school song? No, I don't. Why? Whether you believe it or not, it's because my school doesn't have one. All we had was a church hymn as the school song, which was only played by the school band once a year during the annual sports day. Haha...
ReplyDeleteNow, back to Joe Clark. I admire his courage and tactics. Although he might be very harsh, but it was needed in that environment. His love, passion, and courage in re-revolutionising the school won the hearts and admiration of his students in the end. Now this is what I call effective leadership in times of trouble.