Word: patersons
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...tough love is your thing, you can find a lot to love about Joe Clark. Bullhorn cradled in one arm, a stack of books and papers resting in the other, the 48-year-old principal of Eastside High in down-at-the-heels Paterson, N.J. (pop. 140,000), charms and bullies his way through the bustling corridors of his ordered domain like an old-time ward boss, relishing every step. He pinches girls on their cheeks, slaps high fives with both boys and girls, greeting most by name...
Clark has proved that time and again since arriving at Eastside in 1982, after 20 years as a teacher and elementary school principal in Paterson. The school, with a student body of 3,200 -- nearly all black and Hispanic and about a third from families on welfare -- was then crawling with pushers, muggers and just about every other species of juvenile thug. Pot smoke blew out of broken windows. Graffiti marred the walls. Doors were damaged. Teachers were afraid to come to work. Clark, a former Army Reserve sergeant, took quick action. He chained doors against pushers and threatened...
...scattered triumphs of cities large and small, where public education is undergoing its most severe challenge. In a country fed up with kids out of control, Clark seems to represent one effort to return to the law-and-order of a more innocent time. In recent weeks the Paterson principal has found himself not only the subject of network news reports but also a sought-after guest on TV talk shows. CBS's 60 Minutes has shot a segment on the maverick educator, and Warner Bros. has snapped up the rights to his life story ("six figures," plus a percentage...
...Paterson, like too many other school districts, has no alternative programs for the losers, most of whom simply vanish into a festering underclass of unemployables. Nationally the dropout rate for the past three years has hovered around 1 million -- the equivalent of dumping the entire pupil population of New York City, biggest in the U.S., onto the nation's trash heap every year. Very few ever drop back in. Most of the others are lost forever, not only to the school system but to society at large. The battle to prevent those losses has never been more difficult. Old-style...
...seismic clash between cocky, contentious Joe Clark of Eastside High and the Paterson, N. J., school board has catapulted a back- burner conversation among academics about the quality of urban schools into front- page and prime- time news. President Reagan says Clark has the right stuff. Most educators, however, believe the bat- toting principal swings too hard. See EDUCATION...