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by Tara Overzat
Recently, Oprah Winfrey gave $365,000 to the Ron Clark Academy, apparently out of the blue. Granted Clark, Disney 2000 American Teacher of the Year winner and currently the founder and head of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, is previous guest of her show and received an award from her in the past. But this is a huge sum of money. Besides, Clark is not hurting for money and could endow the school himself if he is so inclined. He commands speaking fees of $10,000 as a local keynote; $15,000 as a keynote; and $30,000 for international engagements. This does not include a flat travel fee of $1000 anywhere outside of Atlanta.
Considering the timing of Oprah’s gift, it is not surprising to then hear that Ron Clark Academy is the same school that re-wrote TI’s obnoxious hit, “You Can Have Whatever You Like” to the politically slanted version “You Can Vote However You Like” seen below.
Rapper T.I., Courtesy of about.com
TI’s original lyrics consist of gems like: “Late night sex so wet you’re so tight/I’ll gas up the jet for you tonight/Baby you can go where ever you like (you like).” This upstanding moral anthem was used as the tune for 6th and 7th graders to learn the song to. Children from 11-13 years old. Even if they had not heard the song before, who could resist going home and downloading it and/or googling the song lyrics? That being said, forcing children to sing politically slanted lyrics at an age when they may not be knowledgeable about politics is even worse. The song starts out evenly enough, talking about both McCain and Obama, and then gets progressively more snarky about McCain’s views while scarcely criticizing Obama’s, then crescendos with “Can’t bring our troops back/We gotta vote Barack!”
Matthew Perry, left, and Ron Clark, right, Courtesy of ecu.edu
Now the children have learned backing the “right” political candidate can net them lots of free money. This is a horrible lesson to learn (shame on Oprah), but it is par for the course for charlatan Ron Clark. His celebrated teaching methods are questionable to say the least, and it appears he came to prominence only after concocting a similar political stunt a decade ago, when he coerced his class to fundraise in order to purchase a full page ad in USA Today posing a question to then-President Clinton. Clark is a product of our celebrity-obsessed culture that puts image in front of substance. To the left is a photo of Clark with “Friends” star Matthew Perry who portrayed the teacher in a movie.
Despite the accolades, one can find plenty of negative feedback about Clark’s how-to-teach book “The Essential 55.” (Particularly on Amazon.com)
Dave, an Amazon.com reviewer writes, “According to pointless RULE 9, Mr. Clark will take back any gift you don’t thank him for in three seconds. After one little girl won a set of books from him, our heartless author states on page 24, “The little girl was so excited that she was jumping up and down.” Guess what. She forgot to immediately say thank you, and her gleeful classmates pointed it out. Mr. Clark then took away her earned reward and traded it in for lasting humiliation. He was then kind enough to share this humiliation with the world and profit from it in this very book.”
This wonderful example of compassion is usurped by stories of getting back at a fellow teacher (whom the book absurdly refers to as Mrs. Bitterson) by denigrating her room with a foul onion, upping the ante until diced onion is put into her air freshener. Clark is immature at best, and a true phony at worst.
It is worrisome that Clark is allowed around children, and even more upsetting that he runs a school self-aggrandizingly named after himself. One can only hope that the fundamentals are being taught there, and that these children do not walk away having learned all the wrong lessons about life.
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