13
percentage of all public schools, poverty is, as
Esquith described it “the elephant in the (class)room.”
“When you talk about kids who have no dinner
and maybe don’t even have a parent in the home at
night, of course they are at a disadvantage when they
come to school,” said Esquith, who acknowledged
using anger at social injustice
as fuel. He routinely spends
from 6:30 a.m. to after 5 p.m. at
school, a schedule many of his
students also adopt. “I believe
in my country and that we
should give every kid an equal
chance, but with poverty that
doesn’t happen the way it
should.
“For me, when the light bulb
goes off in a kid’s head, that’s
the greatest feeling in the
world.”
Anyone would be lucky to
have a teacher like Esquith. His
students spend all year
preparing for their annual
Shakespeare
performance,
which was featured in the 2005
PBS documentary “The Hobart
Shakespeareans.” Celebrities
often are in the audience.
Thanks to actor Hal
Holbrook, one of Esquith’s
classes got to take a field trip to
Mark Twain’s hometown of
Hannibal, Mo., to sit in the
graveyard at midnight and read
the
chapter
from
“The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer”
where Tom and Huckleberry
Finn
and
Tom
Sawyer
witnessed a murder in the
graveyard. It was a hot August
night along the Mississippi
River
and
hordes
of
mosquitoes threatened to add
a degree of misery to the
enlightening adventure. One of
the girls in the class had
remembered to bring repellant she had been given on
a class trip the year before to Yosemite National
Park.
“She passed my test,” said Esquith, who
conforms with but disagrees with the standardized
testing that is mandated in public schools. “She kept
her supplies, was organized, knew to bring the
repellant and shared it with her classmates. My guess
is that she has a very good chance at being
successful in other parts of
her life. The most important
things I teach are not on the
test.”
That’s because Esquith
emphasizes teaching his
students skills that connect
with their life, weaving
lessons about integrity,
honesty, and discipline with
math, English and science.
He teaches his kids multiple
subjects each day, but to
Esquith it is really one
continuous lesson.
“I tell my students that they
must be organized, that if
you are organized, your
math will be better, but your
lives also will be better,” he
said. “No child works harder
because you write a
standard on the board.
Education has to be about
them. If I had one piece of
advice for teachers it would
be relevance, relevance,
relevance.”
Esquith listed three central
precepts for his classroom,
his students and himself to
follow:
Be nice. Work hard. “That
sets the culture for our
classroom.”
No shortcuts. “I tell my kids
that to be really good at
anything takes years of
practice.”
The journey is far more
important than the end result. “People marvel at the
fact our students don’t get nervous doing the
Shakespeare performances. We don’t focus on the
(Continued on page 14)
Each year Esquith’s fifth graders at Hobart
Elementary School perform a play by
Shakespeare. The students were featured in
the PBS documentary “The Hobart
Shakespeareans” and have performed all
over the world, including performances at
The Globe Theater in London and even in
front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Such
luminaries as Sir Ian McKellen, Michael
York, Hal Holbrook, Patrick Stewart, and
Garth Brooks have spent time with the
Hobart Shakespeareans. Esquith said
perhaps the greatest day the class ever had
was when Miep Gies, Anne Frank’s
protector, came from Holland to meet the
children.
