The Netflix original series Stranger Things has been attracting a lot of attention and received a lot of positive feedback from its fans. It has an amazing cast of different characters who always somehow find to love more and more. One of my favorite characters that I've been thinking about is the teacher Mr. Clark and the role he serves in the story.
Mr. Clark is a school teacher who appears in the show as a role model for Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. He has an avid love for science and learning that he uses to relate to the boys. In the first episode when class ends the boys all go up to him immediately to ask if the what he ordered had come in yet. He then leads them into a room where he has set up a high tech radio for them all to use as he stands in the back smiling at their enthusiasm. Mr. Clark is what I imagine teachers are supposed to be. Often in schools kids hate learning, and they loose interest in education. Mr. Clark though has helped to feed their curiosity by feeding them knowledge in a positive light. He’s done what teachers are supposed to do in grade school and get kids interested in school.
Mr. Clark even plays a somewhat pinnacle point of the story that also shows a lot about his character. Near the end of the show when all the characters have finally caught up with each other, the boys call Mr. Clark to ask how to build a Sensory Deprivation tub for Eleven. In the scene Mr. Clark is on a date with someone when his home phone rings, he answers it to Dustin asking him about how he needs to know how to build one ‘for fun’. At first Mr. Clark suggests that he’ll call him tomorrow in the question, but then Dustin intervenes that he had said that science must never wait, and to not limit their own curiosity. Without his help, the boys and everyone wouldn't have been able to find Will, but it also tells us something about his character. Mr. Clark really does want kids to learn, and be excited about learning. He puts off his date so that his students can satisfy their own curiosity.
