+..The Great EDUCATOR - Mr. Ron Clark..+

I was usually a lazy bum during the weekend. During my laziness, I love to be a couch potato, flipping thru all sorta channels excluding Sports (I play them, not watch them).

On Saturday night, while lazing in front of the TV emulating Milo the cat, Piko flipped the channel again (for umpteenth time) for Hallmark. The movie was about to start and we read the info for the movie (Howyehh! This what makes Astro rocks, ‘cause we can read the synopsis before deciding to watch them).

So there it was, Triumph for our viewing pleasure. It was a movie about a committed and dedicated teacher from the rural area named Ron Clark or better known as Mr. C among his students.He moved to a more challenging place in Harlem, New York as he said, "This is where they desperately need a good teacher!"

What I know, towards the end of the movie, I kept wondering whether Malaysia nowadays has this kinda very committed, dedicated, never give-up and sincere teacher like Mr. Ron Clark? Please God, at least ONE good teacher!

I remember Cikgu Zubaidah who was my Form Three mentor in SM Asma Alor Setar, she had her back for me when I said, I have problem in English and that Ms. Perry was being selective towards better English speaking students than me. I used to have Cikgu Yazid way back when I was in Standard Six in Assunta, Kuantan. He used to help us in Maths and Kemahiran Hidup. He even stayed back to give us free tuition classes. I remember Mrs. Loh who with her own way, made me loved my Add Maths during form 4 and form 5 in Johor Bahru. I remember being punished to hold my add maths book on top of my head for failing to finish my homework! Since then, I was determined to understand and finish all of my homeworks! I remember Cikgu B who showed the whole class that I got a telur ayam for my chemistry, and she hit my palm with a pembaris. Since then on, I was challenged to score all my chemistry papers. These teachers were willing to stay back after school hours and gave their fullest attention when asked. They even did helped us to do our homeworks!

Those were among the Great Teachers who not only taught us to be better in education, but also in terms of social skill, common sense, to think BIG and treat all of us as their family. They also taught us to respect each other. Just like Mr. Ron Clark did with his students.

When we treat each other like family, we care for each other, we work together, we share what we have and then come RESPECT. Just like the concept of TEAMWORK. (Suddenly this movie reminds me of my own Boss pulak! I wish she did watch this movie)

It’s just so sad nowadays when a lot of teachers (not all, I still have faith in some good teachers) only go to school for them to get their gaji by the end of the month. There are no more passion in teaching, to sincerely want to see their students grow, to think BIG, to be inspired and aspired, to earn each others’ respect.

I remember when my own kid sis was put in a class where the teachers expected them to fail miserably in PMR. A Hopeless Class where majority of them will fail, so why must one put extra attention to them? It was a waste of time. So the teachers and the school thought. But well, Allah is Great. My kid sis managed to get perfect 8As due to her own determination and my parents motivation. She had to go to tuition classes as her own teachers abandoned their class that year.

If teachers are really sincere in teaching, I bet the tuition centers will run out of their money!! [Heck! Some of the teachers ask their students to go for tuition class that they handle (WITH payment of course), and those who joined, will pass easily for soalan bocor!] Tsk tsk….teachers are going materialistic aye!

To Mr. Ron Clark:- I salute you!! (and that history in Rap was so-oo cool, man!). For those who want to know about this inspiring movie: Please read the reviews below:- Matthew Perry who plays Mr.Clark, and the real Mr. Clark on his left! A handsome chap, aye!

THE RON CLARK STORY follows the inspiring tale of an energetic, creative and idealistic young teacher who leaves his small North Carolina hometown to teach in a New York City public school. Through his passionate use of special rules for his classroom, highly innovative teaching techniques and an undying devotion to his students and helping them cope with their problems, Clark is able to make a remarkable difference in the lives of his students. For one young girl trying to attend school while helping to raise her brothers and sisters, he offers a chance for her to overcome her situation and become one of the class' top students. For a young man with a penchant for graffiti, he offers an ideal outlet for artistic expression. Even when he is almost overcome by pneumonia, Clark continues to work with his students, hoping that he can raise their test scores to an acceptable level, or possibly even higher.

As a result of his achievements, Clark won Disney's prestigious Teacher of the Year Award and was featured in Oprah's O magazine as her first Phenomenal Man of the year. He has also written several successful books on education and child rearing.

Matthew Perry was moved to tell a top teacher's true story. By Brad Newsome.

MATTHEW PERRY hasn't done much film or television since Friends wound up in 2004, but one script he did jump at was The Triumph, a telemovie about inspirational American schoolteacher Ron Clark.

Clark grew up and taught in rural North Carolina, but in 1999, seeing a television program about the desperate state of schools in New York City, he packed up and headed for Harlem, hoping to make a difference. The success he had in inspiring children who others had little hope for astounded all who saw it.

Speaking from Atlanta, Georgia, where he now runs his own high school for disadvantaged children, Clark says Perry was passionate about the story from the start.

"I said, 'Why did you decide to do this movie? You could do any movie you want,' and he said 'When I read the script, I cried.' "

Clark, whose book of rules for teachers and students, The Essential 55, was a bestseller in the US, says he had been asked many times to collaborate on a film about his life but had always been reluctant.

"I always said no because I didn't want to see myself carrying kids out of a burning building because that's not what happened."

But with The Triumph, he says, "The story you see is what happened. It was like you see in the movie - I stayed at the YMCA and went up and down the street trying to find a school."

There is one small qualification, though: "I'm a little different from Matthew Perry. I'm a lot more animated and I have better rhythm."

In Harlem, Clark took on the toughest fifth-grade class in one of the toughest schools.

Despite much initial hostility and harassment from the students - some of whom were determined to make him quit - he captured their attention and imagination and at the end of that first year his class outscored the honours class on their exams.

Although in New York City the high-school dropout rate is about 65 per cent, all 37 of the students in his first Harlem class are expected to graduate this year.

Clark keeps in touch with as many of his former students as he can, offering himself as a mentor and a sounding board and helping them with things such as university applications - often nobody in their families has ever been to university.

He is scathing about the state of the American education system. "It's crap because we have a big focus here in America on test scores and so teachers are teaching to the tests - they only teach what they think will be on the tests," he says. Science, art, music - and, of course, the children are the losers.

"These kids might become good test takers but they won't become lifelong learners," he says. "Because of the system, teachers become burnt out and put kids in categories and if you tell kids they can't learn, they won't learn."

He says teachers' low pay is a problem but adds that they have to be more professional if they want to improve their standing and their salaries.

"Here we have some teachers who wear trackie-pants and they complain that the kids don't respect them. I say, 'Look at you - you look like you're dressed to work at Wal-Mart'," he says.

Clark now lives in Atlanta, where his school, the Ron Clark Academy, seeks out the city's most troubled and troublesome students. The school now has 60 students, many of whom have been in jail or were offloaded by other schools.

His school puts a big emphasis on travel - by the time they graduate students will have visited six of the seven continents - and there are nearly as many teachers as students.

"We invite teachers from our country and all over the world - Australia, wherever - to come and teach and watch us and learn about our programs and take them back," he says.

Could Matthew Perry make a good teacher? "No," Clark says. "He's too nice. If you want to be a good teacher you've got to be nice but you've got to be strict and not worry what the kids think about you."

For more info about this awe-inspiring teacher, please visit About_Ron_Clark

He was also named The First Phenomenal Man by Ms. Oprah Winfrey here Click Here

Mr. Clark also received the Disney American Teacher Award, read here: Click Here