Compare/Contrast

Looking back on my ideas of good teaching, the thoughts that swam through my mind usually consisted of candy, snack time, and endless games of Heads Up Seven Up. I only considered read-ins, Pajama Day, and field trips when entertaining the thought of what teacher I would end up with the following year. However, taking a closer look from a more grown up standpoint, I realize that those tiny perks are a only sheer veil over the remarkable face of what being a teacher really is.  A good teacher addresses the unfavorable experiences in a students life, in or outside of the classroom, and turns them around to where they are able to take away something positive from the situation.  Erin Gruwell and Ron Clark are two prime examples of extraordinary teachers, devoting their lives and career to educating and creating the best futures possible for their students. With determination, positivity and guts, these two teachers were able to mold the brilliant futures of their young scholars and shine onto them influential beams of light capable of turning the most negative of situations into something much brighter. Giving them encouragement, hope and a group they were able to call family, the scholastic lives, as well as home lives, of their students flourished into remarkable stepping stones to create the base of the rest of their bright futures.
No one was really sure if she knew what she was getting herself into. A new teacher from the thriving high-class city of Newport Beach, Ms. Gruwell didn't anticipate the amount of violence and retaliation throughout the newly integrated Los Angeles High School where she would now be employed. She waited at the head of her dusty, bare classroom while the old graffiti-covered desks began to slowly fill. Looking at faces ranging on the color spectrum from black to white and everything in between, she might as well have been colorblind. The students mocked her fair white complexion and the faculty mocked her devotion to them. Regardless, she stuck around despite how threatened she was feeling to pursue a task that no other teacher dare even consider. Teaching the "unteachables".
With a lack of inspiring material to introduce to her new class, Ms. Gruwell was scorned for asking to use the library books because the students had a reputation for destroying them. She took it upon herself to pick up a second job to help pay for her new school books and introduced them to the idea of Change, which they were all able to entertain. With time she gained the trust of each of her students, some more willing than others, and explored alternative teaching methods to get them to open up more. She used their music preferences and backgrounds to bring them together where they were able to realize how much they actually had in common. During a game, Ms. Gruwell triggered loss as a mutual emotion between all of the students which was used as an icebreaker and offered a link between each of them. She compared Nazi's to the neighborhood gangs that the students were affiliated with to give them a perspective on how amateur they actually are which opened up their eyes to the idea that there may be more to life than the streets.  
Meanwhile at home, her relationship with her husband was struggling. Her heart was torn, battling a constant push and pull from spouse to scholars and she soon found herself splitting up their belongings in an unforeseen divorce. Still she kept close to her class and with them moving up a grade within the year, she was able to convince the school board to let her advance with them and remain their teacher until they graduated. After publishing a book of her students' writing and proving wrong the extremely pessimistic minds of her fellow staff members, Ms. Gruwell followed many of her students to college as a teacher to pursue the rest of her career in their footsteps.
Mr. Clark didn't expect to be laughed at when he said he wanted to "teach" in Harlem. Apparently his small North Carolina town didn't compare much to New York City, so it took some convincing of his weary parents before he decided to make the move. Landing at a low income Harlem elementary school, the faculty was doubtful of the new teacher, referring to the students as problems. He visited each students' home to talk to their parents about the curriculum they would be learning prior to starting at the school. Here he was brushed off with little to no cooperation from the parents, which gave him an idea of what he would be working with once he got into the classroom. For the loud and very disobedient new students, he came up with creative ways to make it exciting for the kids to learn. He rapped songs about History and even played games in class to make it more interesting for them. The number one rule was that in the classroom, they were a family and within that group they had a guaranteed safe place.
Entering a classroom where every single student tells you to leave must feel somewhat unwelcoming and although he considered leaving, Mr. Clark stayed because he was determined to raise the test scores of the brilliant young minds that sat before him. Picking up some of the burdens that the students were dealing with in their own lives gave them a chance to focus more on their studies and less on their problems. He met with students individually to help them with anything that they were struggling with, school-related or not. When he became sick with Pneumonia, he video taped himself at home for the kids to watch in class since he could not physically be there to teach them. Mr. Clark saw education as an out for troubled students while the students were able to look at the classroom as an out for their lack of a decent home life.
The class appreciated what Mr. Clark was doing for them, but not all of their parents did. It took time, but he showed them that if you set the bar low, then that's all you're going to get. When you expect nothing but less, then less is all you are going to get. After some convincing and positive test scores, he was able to prove the true potential of their children and bring light to their intricate developing minds. He took one very troubled student out of the shadows and brought him into an uplifting environment where he was able to prosper into a remarkable artist. Eventually when the students got their final test scores back, the results were outstanding and they ended up scoring highest average of any other class in the school.
It's a combination of determination, selflessness, positivity and guts that make these two teachers as inspiring as they are. For Ms. Gruwell and Mr. Clark's classes, it didn't matter where you came from. You could be black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican or Jewish. It was the sense of community and affinity, regardless of their backgrounds, that brought them together and gave them a sense of family. Although neither of the teachers anticipated teaching a class of such intransigent students, they took it upon themselves to bring them together as one and give them the sense of wholesomeness and upbringing that they were lacking. Despite the seemingly endless mockery and judgement that they received from their peers, both teachers fought endlessly to improve and encourage the futures of each and every one of their students.