Lean on Me

In my opinion, all movies have its own entertainment value and thus it depends on the viewer to decide whether it is entertaining or not. For me, the movie “Lean on Me” is the story that people will be able to predict the ending easily. Just like the bedtime story, ending will be perfect and the good will triumph the evil. Though the story line is nice, I still not fully understand the conversation as their slang is unique. Elements such as humor, patience, forgiveness, trust and yes, friendships are all good values implemented in this movie. I enjoy the part where the boy asking for Principal Clark forgiveness when he is being expelled from school and the way Principal Clark made him promise that he will be good.

Sincerely, watching this movie scares me a little. It makes me wonder, what if I being transferred to the school just like in the movie? Gosh, this will give me a terrible headache and how am I going to survive in that condition. So, just cross my finger and hoping that my future school will be a normal school with a tiny little bit of discipline problem so that I can enjoy my career.

In the movie, Principal Clark is the new principal in that school. His job is to create a new environment and make the school looks like a school. Besides making the school looks like a school, he also needs to make sure that the students will be able to pass the Basic Skill Test. So, he is quite bossy and tries to change the school in his own way. He makes sure the school safety by violating the fire code and thus receiving complaints from a parent. That’s quite an extreme move as he didn’t think about the consequences if there is a fire going on though his intention is clear, to protect the students from the bad guy outside of the school. Now, his bossy attitude made me relate my discipline teacher with him. My discipline teacher, who is a she, likes to order people around. For example, when you saw her in the corridor, make sure you have an excuse for every questions she is trying to bombarded you. If not, then, you will be ORDERED around, to get her books, to clean her table, to send her files and even take her bag to her seat or car. She is always the one with “rotan” in her hand to curb the discipline problem and so my school always stays out of gangster trouble.

Lessons that I have learnt from this movie will be trust and responsibility. As teacher, we should be responsible to our students. They are our client and thus teaching them, giving them the knowledge is out job. Just like Principal Clark, he has done his responsibilities – take care of the school environment, expelled the bad students, keep up the grades and become a father to all of the students. Besides that, trust is also important as “no man is an island”, we need friends to help us and support us. Just like in the story, Principal Clark has many teachers to work with him but he didn’t appreciate them and the vice principal wake him up to see the truth. This is what friends for; they make you awake and aware.