Clark - The End of Molasses Classes

ALSO BY RON CLARK

The Essential 55
The Excellent 11

Touchstone
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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New York, NY 10020
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Certain names have been changed.

Copyright 2011 by Ron L. Clark, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof
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Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Touchstone hardcover edition July 2011

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Designed by Ruth Lee-Mui

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clark, Ron.
The end of molasses classes : getting our kids unstuck :
101 extraordinary solutions for parents and teachers / Ron Clark.
p. cm.(A Touchstone book)
1. Effective teaching. 2. Home and school. 3. Conduct of life. I. Title.
LB1025.3.C533 2011
371.192dc22 2011011986

ISBN 978-1-4516-3972-8

ISBN 978-1-4516-3973-5 (ebook)

For Kenneth

It is my greatest wish for all of my students to
grow into the individual you have become.

For those who have poured molasses, you know it comes out slowly, dragging itself from the lip of the jar, hesitating in air as it seems to stretch itself to the biscuit, resisting every step of the way. Its some kinda slow, and its easy to see where my grandma Maude got one of her favorite sayings, You are moving as slow as molasses.

As a kid in the South, I learned to use molasses as a descriptive word for anything that was slow, and as I traveled to all fifty states to learn about education in our country, I found myself drawing back to this word from my childhood. I witnessed teachers with no energy, students who were struggling to prop up their heads, and classrooms that were just checked out and uninterested. I thought to myself, over and over, These are molasses classes.

It broke my heart.

In the midst of the molasses, I would also find pockets of classrooms that contained passionate teachers and students who were on fire and thriving. I was furious that every child couldnt have that type of experience, and I wanted to do something, to make a change. I just dont have the patience to try to rebuild the education system in America by going through politics and up against the bureaucracy of the system. For me, the best way to initiate change in the way we educate our children was by starting a revolution from the ground up. I decided the most effective way to ignite the revolution would be to build a school unlike any other in the world. A school full of passion, creativity, and rigor. A school where parents and teachers would work together and support one another in the education of all children. It would be a school that would find new and innovative ways to reach our children in the school and in the home, and the overall mission would be to then share what was learned with others. It would be a school that would hopefully start a change, one person at a time.

Now, years later, that dream is a reality. The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, has started from that ground-up revolution, and over ten thousand educators from around the world have visited our school to learn about the unexpected ways the teachers and parents of RCA have helped our children achieve great success. The professional development experiences we offer are unique, because we allow educators to sit in our classrooms to watch me and the rest of our exemplary staff in action as we educate our students. As a teacher in North Carolina and New York, I never left my classroom to see what other teachers were doing, and unfortunately that is the norm in our country. Teachers graduate college, enter their classrooms, and stay there thirty years. They rarely venture out to learn from others, and often they dont have access to an exceptional teacher to learn from. Our school offers that experience. We give teachers something to strive for, and we show them what excellence in a classroom looks like. We are by no means perfect, and we make mistakes, but the visitors are then able to see how we handle typical classroom challenges, how we motivate students to apply their best effort, and how we inspire every child to achieve successs. That type of experience is valuable for any educator looking to improve and develop as a professional.

Visiting educators often comment that they wish every teacher and parent could learn about the techniques we are using at RCA. There is nothing like visiting in person, but for everyone else, we have created this book, listing 101 of the most effective strategies we have used to help our children succeed. This book serves as guidance for parents who want more for their children, teachers who need strategies for helping students achieve success, and communities that hope to uplift every child and improve the education of our next generation.

I never expected to be a teacher. I grew up in a small town in eastern North Carolina and only dreamed of escaping dirt roads and finding adventure. While attending East Carolina University, I worked fifty hours a week at Dunkin Donuts and managed to save a whopping $600. After graduation, I used that money to buy a one-way ticket to London, England. My parents werent too happy as neither had graduated college and they felt that I was throwing away my chance at a career, but I followed my heart and set off to have the adventure that had always been the focus of my dreams.

After six months of dressing as a cowboy and performing my duties as a singing waiter at the Texas Embassy Cantina in the heart of London, I threw everything I had with me into a backpack and set off to explore Europe. Many countries later I was much wiser and had a greater appreciation for the various nations, cultures, religions, and people who were different from me. My trip, however, was cut short by a bad case of food poisoning that I obtained after eating a rat in Romania. Long story!

I flew home to North Carolina and spent two nights in the hospital recuperating. My mother fussed and said, Ron, you have got to get a job and stop all of these crazy adventures. I told her that I intended to save up more money and purchase a ticket to China, but she then informed me that a fifth-grade teacher at a local school had passed away in the middle of the school year. She said the students were devastated and that if I didnt go teach them they would have substitute teachers for the rest of the year.

I thought about those children and how sad they must have been, and I looked at my mom and without hesitation I said, Im going to China.

Mom quickly put me in my place, as mothers so often do, by telling me that if I didnt at least speak with the principal she would never support anything I did for the rest of my life.

Moms.

When I visited with the principal at S. W. Snowden Elementary she let me know that the class was extremely challenging and that she was thrilled that I was interested in the position. She said, Youre just the man for the job.