Leadership Matters September 2014

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

“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

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

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.

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

remembered to bring repellant she had been given on a class trip the year before to Yosemite National Park.

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