Lean on Me Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joe Clark

They called him "Crazy" Joe Clark because of his unorthodox approach to getting things done in education. And although they thought him crazy they knew he was the one to save Eastside High from the slum school it had become.

Answer: False

The movie started out showing how Eastside High once was, a thriving school that was orderly and full of promise. Twenty years later the school had disintergrated into a graffiti pit of apathetic students, ineffective teachers, and drug dealers.

Answer: Barrett

One of the first things Clark did was to throw out all the students who were the troublemakers. Barrett's son was one of them, and she decided she would "get" Clark. She came very close to getting Clark out of Eastside. She hadn't counted on how much the students, and even staff, came to love him.

Answer: chaining the school doors shut

Clark discovered that even though he threw the drug dealing students out of the school, their friends would simply let them back in. So Clark chain locked the school doors shut, getting him into trouble with parents and the city fire chief. It was a teacher who threw a desk at Clark. Actually he tipped it over in a rage at Clark.

Answer: bullhorn and baseball bat

Right off Clark used a bullhorn to get his point across to the students. He then began carrying a bat. He said they called him Crazy Joe Clark, now they could call him Batman. This was kind of funny given that Morgan Freeman was one of the principal actors in "Batman Begins", a part that came much later in his career.

Answer: New Jersey

The movie was based on the real Eastside High which was located in New Jersey. The students and the school were featured in the movie.

Answer: Morgan Freeman

Freeman played role of Joe Clark, the principal who turned the troubled school and its students around.
"Lean On Me" and then "Driving Miss Daisy" were the movies that catapulted Morgan Freeman to fame. Will Smith would have been close to high school age. Sidney Poitier had done his own teacher movie called "To Sir with Love" back in 1967.

Answer: Lean On Me

"Lean On Me" was one of those symbolic songs sung in the 60s and 70s, and was a perfect fit for the theme of learning to lean on others to help get through the tough times. This assembly was so very different to the other assemblies Clark held. The students and staff joyfully rallied together, stood, and sang the theme song together.

They had learned they had to lean on one another in order not to fall.

Answer: No

The students basically bombed the state skills test the first time; about 75% of the students failed. Clark was outraged and demanded the teachers put more effort into their teaching. A Saturday reading program was established, t-shirts were printed, and a countdown calendar was created.

They passed the second time. In real life there was no skills test crisis; it did make for good movie material though.

Answer: 1980s

The film had the feel of a late seventies movie, but the film release date was 1989. Joe Clark had left Eastside as a teacher in the sixties when it had been a thriving place of learning, only to return to it twenty years later as the last chance principal.