In attempting to discuss Joe Clark's actions, it is very necessary to understand the dynamics and circumstances he had to deal with in order to carry out his duties as an effective principal. First and foremost, the community in which East Side School operates is a black community that lacks education, literacy, job skills, and motivation to change their lot in life. They maintain their survival by working in low-paid jobs, if they can find paid jobs at all. There is gang warfare, drug dealing, prostitution and frequent burglaries in businesses and private homes. The community includes those who once attended East Side High. Then we have teachers who may not have been successful at teaching and were hired to teach at ESH because no really good teacher would want to teach there because they feel they might be risking their lives. on a daily basis and more importantly, the educational standards were a failure as the school's academic results were below the national standard. The teachers themselves had poor teaching skills and did not want to interfere with the difficult dynamics of the ESH students for fear of their own safety and "knowing" that their students would go nowhere in life other than being thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes, and engage in communal warfare. ESH teachers have adopted an attitude of “what's the point of teaching when teaching is wasted?”. They have become complacent. ESH students display an inability to survive if they were to maintain the ethos of wealthier school districts. They lived in a survival of the fittest jungle. Due to their extreme poverty, they stole, sold and used drugs, and participated in gang wars to control their image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential resemblance to ourselves, then we do not love them: we love only the reflection of ourselves that we find in them” “No Man is an Island”, Thomas Merton I feel that Joe Clark had the best interests of its students, teachers, school and community. It has done wonders for ESH. His actions, although grave, brought about effective changes in all those he was involved with. Elizabeth Lyttleton Sturz, made a comment about Joe Clark in the New York Times Book Review and referred to the book "Laying Down the Law" as: "...A fascinating picture of a man obsessed with the nuts and bolts that create or destroy programs in education and elsewhere.” Joe Clark is to be commended for his strength despite the politics and hardships he faced.