Ann of Althouse riffs on the death of a no-nonsense, inner-city high school principal, the kind that has gone the way of rotary-dial telephones — to the republic’s great loss. Morgan Freeman played principal Joe Clark in the movie Lean on me, as reported in the New York Times.
When Mr. Clark, a former Army drill sergeant, arrived at Eastside High School in Paterson NJ in 1982, he declared it a “cauldron of violence.” He expelled 300 students for disciplinary problems in his first week. When he tossed out — “expurgated,” as he put it — about 60 more students five years later, he called them “leeches, miscreants and hoodlums.”…
Mr. Clark, who oversaw a poor, largely Black and Hispanic student body, denounced affirmative action and welfare policies and “hocus-pocus liberals.” When “60 Minutes” profiled him in 1988, he told the correspondent Harry Reasoner:
“Because we were slaves does not mean that you’ve got to be hoodlums and thugs and knock people in the head and rob people and rape people. No, I cannot accept that. And I make no more alibis for Blacks. I simply say work hard for what you want.”
As long as we’re on schools, is anyone surprised that the Madison teachers union is opposed to returning to school? Still? After SCIENCE shows that kids are not susceptible to Covid-19? That kids are suffering? A vaccine being administered?
We will soon see what new superintendent, Carlton Jenkins, is made of. BTW: only two candidates for the two seats up for election on April 6. Maia Pearson for the Gloria Reyes seat and young Savion Castro for a full term. These people are Progressive Dane, Cops Out of Schools, play the race card. In other words, the people running Madison today. Filing deadline for school board and Common Council is 5 p.m. Tuesday 01-05-2021.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: For that matter, Madison public schools will no longer tolerate a Milton McPike, who suffered no fools at East High. Let’s face it: Using fear and intimidation, Freedom Inc. runs Madison’s schools these days.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
10 responses to “Madison schools need a Joe Clark”
If every school had a Milton McPike, a Wally Schoessow (The Gotch’s former FB coach & a pal), and their female equivalents, education (as opposed to indoctrication-n-chaos) would be in a FAR better place!
It’s painfully clear that Lefty wants the next generation to (depending on melanin-content) be either VictimHoodied or White Lefty Guilt suffocated, stupid, and philosophically pliant.
Unfortunately, it’s working.
The Gotch
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Yeah, it’s really sad and in my opinion Racist! When you deliberately water down education to all students and tell especially the Black students that they are the victims of white supremacy, then you set up many a young person for a lifetime of FAILURE!
On the other hand-
When you craft the coursework to be a challenge to any student and make them accountable for their coursework as well as their behavior, you get fantastic results.
Yes, you will have your failures, but instead of failing all the students in the school by having dumbed down education with little accountability you will have a few that will not make it.
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As with so many deplorable features of our culture, the fraying of our education system can be traced back to academia, in this case to Schools of Education where teachers-to-be are indoctrinated by left-wing fanatics, then sent out to accomplish the same goal with their own students. Instead of introducing kids to “the best that has been thought and written” (Matthew Arnold), teachers, behaving like missionaries in a cult whose purpose is to reshape society to their liking, systematically remove any opportunity for their students to develop critical thinking skills, which they know full well could be used to undermine the intellectually and ethically vacuous ideology they’re being spoon-fed on a daily basis. If a principal today tried to implement Joe Clark’s methods he would be hounded out of his position and probably charged with child abuse and hate crimes.
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Milt was a grade principal at West in the 70’s when I went there. Wasn’t mine but if you ever screwed up I heard his large hands on the back of your neck convinced you that you better think your ways. He had my respect and wouldn’t accept crap regardless of your color. The “culture” has digressed to the point of no return. I wouldn’t send a kid to Madistan public schools. The ones thrown out of Madistan’s schools get to come out to our school district and they get a free Badger cab ride coming and going. It’s now a clown world.
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“It’s now a clown world.” True, except these clowns really are evil. I wonder what Joe or Milt would say about the “unmet needs” of vicious little thugs who make learning impossible for their peers and are coddled to the point of lunacy by Madison’s guilty white liberals.
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At the top of the list of their “unmet needs” are these:
1. Father
2. Frequent and increasing levels of accountability for bad behavior
3. The word “no”
4. Respect for rules and elders
5. Discipline with no excuses
6. Shred that race card and run far away from the social justice crowd and other toxic losers
7. Buckle down, show up regularly and on time, and get your work done
A sh!t-ton of baby mommas could benefit from personal attention to this list for their own selves too.
Note that this list does not require racial set-asides, screaming about The System of Whiteness, free money from the government, free housing, or free food.
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“Note that this list does not require racial set-asides, screaming about The System of Whiteness, free money from the government, free housing, or free food.”
Lefty will…um…note that you’re RAYcist!
The Gotch
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MTI activists don’t want to work. They hint already they want to sit out another full year.
Ironically many poor and minority students have fallen even further behind in the nearly full year Madison public schools have been closed. The achievement gap is almost being baked into concrete for decades to come as a result.
Interesting how silent the race activists and progressives are about this situation.
Meanwhile numerous other public school districts in Wisconsin plus many private schools are open with no adverse effects. Yet the Madison teachers union screams endlessly about how they can’t go back in the classroom.
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“Interesting how silent the race activists and progressives are about this situation.”
The “race activists and progressives” you reference unequivocally want the next generation to be (depending on melanin-content) either VictimHoodied or White Lefty Guilt suffocated, stupid, and philosophically pliant.
By detestably loathsome happenstance, this dovetails with their plans flawlessly.
He Alone, Who Owns The Youth, Gains The Future A. Hitler
Despicable Lefties!!!
The Gotch
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So now we see 7 republican senators are going to challenge the will of the people, combined with the reported 100+ republican congresscritters. I guess this is all the proof one needs to find republicans actually are nothing more than caca who hate Americas for our freedoms. Yeah, yeah I know a small number of dems challenged previous republican victories, but remember in two of those three cases the Democrat won a majority of Americans votes.
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