Joe Clark was a non-traditional high school principalwhose unusual way of enforcing rules became the subject of a 1989 Hollywood movie.Clark died late last year at the age of 82.He gained national attention for his leadership at Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey."You are not inferior," is what Clark would often tell his students.Many of the Eastside students were African American or Latino.They grew up in a difficult environment.Many of the students who attended his school faced violence, crime, drugs and troubled family life.Clark believed that students had to be shocked often to understand the influences that could prevent them from succeeding in school and in life.In Clark's first days of working at Eastside High School,he expelled 300 students for fighting, destroying school property, abusing teachers and drug possession.The students who remained at school believed that higher expectations were being placed on them.They felt more pressure to perform better.Before becoming an educator, Clark served in the U.S. Army Reserve.His experience might have influenced how he supervised his school.
