I was hustling in the streets, the street life that I was accustomed to by the housing development that I came from. T MCENTYRE: We definitely the product of both sides of the fence with Clark. SIMON: Well, could you please tell us the story? - because in the movie version of your life, there's the kind of naughty kid and the good kid. T MCENTYRE: Every time I hear that clip, it's just - it just brings, like, a flashback to me 'cause I was one of the 300. Did it capture Joe Clark, the man you knew?ĭ MCENTYRE: Absolutely.

SIMON: So many of us have seen that movie over the years. They're married and join us now from their home in Virginia Beach, Va. SIMON: Joined now by two of Joe Clark's former students, Thomas and Debra McEntyre. If you can't control it, how can you teach? Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm. This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. MORGAN FREEMAN: (As Joe Clark) I want the names of every hoodlum, drug dealer and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today. His work inspired the 1989 film, 'Lean On Me,' starring Morgan Freeman as Joe Clark. The White House made a job offer in 1988, but Joe Clark declined a national job to stay at Eastside. Early in his tenure, he expelled 300 students for misconduct and laid down the law for the rest of them.

And in the 1980s, he was principal of Eastside High in Paterson, N.J., a school where crime and drug use were rampant.

A legendary American educator died this week.

A wife and a mother mr clark