Sunday, April 3, 2011

Lean On Me

This is the second movie which Dr.Jaya prepares for us to watch. This movie is about a principal named Clark who wants to turn a school full of delinquents into a much more disciplined school. His mission is to make the students pass the state examination.
Just like other movies, “Lean On Me” has the value of entertainment. From the beginning, the movie gives the audience a lot of excitement as there are many scenes that are interesting. There are many scenes that give the sense of suspense. For example, whether the delinquents will attack Principal Clark for dropping them from school and whether the students will pass the state examination. However, the movie “Lean On Me” gives us more value as education rather than entertainment.
Just like the previous movie, “Lean On Me” also affect me a teacher-to-be. It is because I cannot expect what type of school and students I will be facing. I might end up in cluster school where the students are much more discipline or end up in a school full of delinquents. This movie teaches me on how to cope with students that have problems. As a B.Ed.TESL student, I ought to learn all these skills in order to cope with problematic students.
Principal Clark reminds me of my former principal in SBP Integrasi Pekan. His name is Mr. Abbas. Just like Pricipal Clark, he is very strict and rigid about the school’s rule. Rather than being afraid of him, I respect him very much. He might be strict, but he is not cruel. If a student has problems with self discipline, he will call the students to his office and have a private talk. Mr.Abbas is not a dictator like Principal Clark. In the movie, Principal Clark holds the power and no one in the school can deny his orders. For me, it is essential to have a power over everyone if the school is full with delinquents.
One of the lessons that I learn from the movie “Lean On Me” is that people can change if we use the right way. In this statement, the people are referring to the problematic students. In the movie, we can see that Principal Clark used many ways in order to change the behavior of the students. He instills sufficient education for the students so that they will change accordingly to his expectation. Although at first Principal Clark rule with iron claw, he also slowly changes in order to adapt with the students’ transformation.  

1 comment:

  1. Yes, being a teacher is not easy but being a principal is even harder. A principal has to handle the school's administration and the school. I feel that Mr. Clark had very good intentions for the school and his harsh method were reasonable. When in that kind of violent environment, it is important to control first then be moderate later. I think every teacher just wants to be respected by the students and to do that we as teachers have to respect them first to show example.

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