In a time when the country’s education system is ranked No. 27 worldwide, coddling students has to stop, according to award-winning educator Ron Clark.

Clark, a Beaufort County native who founded the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, spoke to a packed room on Monday at Beaufort County Community College’s Building 10, commemorating the college’s 50^th anniversary. Clark is a bestselling author and was named Disney’s American Teacher of the Year in 2000.

Clark said the education system is failing in America for a variety of reasons, and among them is the tendency to reward students for participating, rather than succeeding. He said parents have also enabled this culture and often place themselves in opposition with the teachers.

“Parents in America are more concerned about ‘Is my child on the honor roll?’ rather than ‘Is my child being challenged?’” Clark said. “We are not drawing people in to our profession that we want to teach. We are not an educated society anymore.”

Clark compared the education system to a bus with four types of people: runners, joggers, walkers and riders. It is the runners who keep the bus moving forward, he said.

The runners are those who take initiative, keep coming up with new ideas, work tirelessly and do not get discouraged, Clark said. They outshine the walkers and riders, who usually stop at the minimum requirements, spread negativity and get caught into a complacent routine, he said.

“This community needs runners,” Clark said. “You only live but once. You’re here once. If you’re going to be in Beaufort County, be in Beaufort County. If you’re going to be a teacher, teach. If you’re going to do something, do it right. If you’re going to be a student, be a student. You’ve got to be here anyway. Come on, put your heart into it.”

At the Ron Clark Academy, teachers are encouraged to step outside the box and teach concepts in a new way, according to Clark. The classrooms are covered in colors and murals from ceiling to floor, a way of making them more exciting to students and feel more like their own space.

To Clark, learning important concepts is a hard road, but the job of educators is to keep pushing the students and help them along the way.

“When you give kids too much, they become entitled, they become arrogant, and they get out to the world and they don’t understand why the world doesn’t love them,” he said. “You know what I say? Why don’t you suck it up? Let’s get to work.”

Clark said the success of a civilization is not continued through its economy or its military, but rather through its “brain trust,” or education. If America invests in its education system and holds the students accountable, it will continue to grow, he said.

The same concept applies in Beaufort County, Clark said.

“I want to show people that education can be good, fun and exciting. This can be the most magical profession. … When a lot of people are just taking the stairs, or are just taking the boring way that everybody else has taken, somebody’s got to slide,” he said. “If we all do what we need to do, if we dream big, if we push ourselves, and we challenge our kids, and we support our teachers, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”

For more information, visit www.ronclarkacademy.com.