Plot: An engineer by trade, Mark Thackeray, a black man, gets a teaching post until he can find an engineering job. His posting is to teach the senior class at North Quay Secondary School in East London, a school in a tough neighborhood where even the most troubled of students are sent. The school is in a primarily white neighborhood where there is a strict moral code amongst the residents of race relations between whites and blacks. Encouraged by his female colleagues but given a sense of resignation by his male colleagues, Thackeray is having trouble with his class, who are openly disruptive. He is having issues with two students in particular, Denham and Miss Dare, issues which he will have to resolve carefully. After an incident which he considers the last straw, he comes to the realization of what his class really does need to learn.
Alternative Plot: American Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) recently received his degree in engineering, but cannot find work. To make ends meet, he takes a job as a teacher in a rough London East End school populated mostly with troublemakers who were rejected from other schools for their behavior. While the students at first see Thackeray as just another teacher open for ridicule and bullying, his calm demeanor and desire to see them succeed gradually earn him their respect.
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