"The Ron Clark Story" is a movie which is based on the true story life of Ron Clark and the work that he did.

Matthew Perry makes one of his best interpretations if not the best as a school teacher who relocates to one of the toughest classrooms in the country in Inner Harlem Elementary School. This classroom is the most disadvantaged class which exist in whole of the school and that was something that Ron Clark considered as challenge to succeed.

I liked this movie very much because it shows us what a teacher has to do to educate some children who are really tough. It is also shows us what a teacher has to endure to succeed to his work and how difficult this is it.

It's 1998. Ron Clark (Matthew Perry) gets results as an elementary teacher but he leaves his job in the small town of Aurora, North Carolina for NYC. He wants to find a teaching job in Harlem. He starts as a waiter where he befriends Marissa Vega. Inner Harlem Elementary School Principal Turner (Ernie Hudson) dismisses him as being too nice but Clark pushes to teach the worst class in the school. The kids are disruptive. Tayshawn is a troubled kid from a bad foster home. Shameika Wallace is busy taking care of her 3 siblings. Julio is taking bets on how long the teacher lasts. Badriyah is quietly hiding her brains.

This is a functional white savior teacher movie. There are some hokey stuff that is traditional to the genre. Matthew Perry does a good job with some slightly more serious acting. I love the kids most of all. Both Brandon Mychal Smith and Hannah Hodson show some promising skills. The story stays traditional and on the expected path.

An excellent, extremely interesting film of a teacher in the New York City school system. While the movie is terrific and a joy to watch, it is unfortunately unrealistic. I give the movie A+ for effort because this is the way that situations like this should turn out but they don't.

The New York City school system is in a quagmire and no one has been able to solve the problems. Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have been hoodwinking the public into thinking that conditions are getting better. Unfortunately, they aren't.

Nevertheless, we have a true story of a teacher who did make a difference. From North Carolina, Ron Clark had a definite calling for teaching. He comes to New York and takes on a class that no one wants. The students are way out of control.

Yes, Clark gets it right by putting down the rules. Did you notice how quickly most of the class turned from being recalcitrants to ardent listeners? Unfortunately, this does not happen in 99% of our classrooms in the city.

In addition, teachers do not get the support of supervisors as at first shown in the film. The latter does an excellent job of showing the home environment of the pupils. Obviously, from dysfunctional homes, this type of environment is not at all conducive to learning.

I once read that a teacher said that we must get into the minds and the world of the students we teach. Sometimes, we have to drink that chocolate milk or skip rope just to reach these children. Clark does that.

Mat Perry is excellent as the idealistic teacher who certainly is so sure of himself except for that moment when he temporarily lost it.

It is also obvious that the students that Clark had were capable of doing the work but were severe behavior problems. Notice that everyone must have been reading on level or knew how to read to be able to comprehend what he was discussing. Yes, he brought the material, including the rap music on the presidents to their level but there had to be an innate ability to begin with.

Clark tried to work with the abilities of his students by concentrating on the positive.

Speak to our New York City teachers. It's not happening the way it happened in Clark's classroom. Isn't it unfortunate that someone with Clark's talent left the city to form an academy in Georgia? Another problem in our system is that the most creative teachers are leaving to the world of supervision or just plain quitting.

I would like the producers of this film to do a follow-up on the rest of the system. It should only be as good as this film. In retrospect, the film did not show the role of the assistant principal and guidance counselor in the school. For sure, these students were in need of professional help. A therapist was needed as well. The movie did bring out that the principal was solely interested in exam scores. Notice that he chewed the teacher out in front of the students. How do you expect students to show any kind of respect when that occurs? I also observed that there was no talk of co-operative learning. The bulk of the instruction came from Mr. Clark itself. Try that today in a New York City classroom and your headed for trouble. Am sure that the teacher of the honors class had to answer to the principal when Clark's class did better on the statewide exams. I wouldn't want to be in that teacher's place.

On top of everything else, the film adequately showed what some of the parents are like in the system. Right away, the mother threw out the words white teacher.

In summary, the film was very well made and is a definite reflection on society today and how we value education.