Leadership Matters September 2014

Most decorated teacher in America fulfills commitment to his students

By Michael Chamness IASA Director of Communications

Rafe Esquith might be the most decorated teacher in America. He doesn’t need to teach another day. He could be writing another best-seller or working on a movie about his incredible career. He even was asked to start his own line of “Rafe Schools” in China. Instead, he’s right where he knows he should be: Starting his 32 nd year of teaching fifth- graders at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in the Koreantown neighborhood of Los Angeles. “The first rule I have as a teacher is to be a role model for my students. I tell my students that what we do in Room 56 matters,” said Esquith in a phone interview during a school break for lunch recently. “If I leave this place, I’m lying to them.” Recipient of such prestigious awards as the 1992 Disney National Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, the Oprah Winfrey “Use Your Life Award,” Parents Magazine’s “As You Grow Award,” the National Medal of Arts Award, the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama, and the Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, Esquith will be the headline speaker to close the IASA Annual Conference on Friday, October 10. He wrote “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire,” which made the New York Times’ bestseller list in 2007, as well as “There Are No Shortcuts” (2003), “Lighting Their Fires” (2009), and his latest book “Real Talk for Real Teachers,” written in 2013. That he still is teaching in Room 56 at Hobart Elementary might be surprising to some, but how he ended up there is one clue. Upon graduating from UCLA, Esquith got a job teaching at Ivanhoe Elementary School, a decidedly upper middle class school. He taught there for two happy years before moving to Hobart, or, more accurately, being challenged to move to Hobart.

“We won the L.A. city math championship and I was feeling pretty good about things when the principal of Hobart came over and said ‘You didn’t do anything. Anybody could have won with your team,’ “ Esquith recalled. “He invited me to visit Hobart Elementary and I was shocked.” Also inspired, apparently. He left the relative comforts of Ivanhoe to tackle the inner-city struggles facing the Hobart students. The poverty level was 90 percent and English was the second language for most students. Like many inner-city schools and a growing

Friday, October 10 9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Closing General Session Real Talk for Real Educators

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