Last night my wife & I saw a news story on the guy who wrote this book (see the title of this here blog) about his teaching methods. He teaches inner-city kids in L.A. (I believe). And if that's not amazing enough, his students are waiting at the door, eager to get in, two hours before they have to be there!
On top of that, the kids are 5th or 6th graders and they're reading Mark Twain and Shakespeare. Granted, I'm one of the few English teachers who doesn't have a fetish for "The Bard" (Give me James Joyce or Jack Kerouac any day!), but it's still impressive to see his students being moved to tears by the story they're reading. Wow. My students bellyache about virtually everything we do. Of course I have to take that with a grain of salt because it's written in the Teenager's Guide to High School (an underground text containing rules for behavior) that "Thou must complaineth about all assignments thy receiveth!". But to see kids being emotionally moved by literature that way...not to mention feeling secure enough in this classroom to weep without fear of social consequences...well, that was just amazing.
This teacher, Raith Esquith, also had a full set of musical instruments in his classroom (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, etc.) which endeared him to me, since I'm a musician and avid music geek. His students were putting together a rock opera based on Hamlet or Macbeth. And Sir Ian McKellan came in to spend time with the kids. How the heck did Raith manage that? I'm guessing connections through his publishing fame or something.
Why am I babbling about this? Well, it amazes me, for one. For another, where I teach (a vocational school) we deal with the supposedly "bottom of the barrel" kids. And it galls me when teachers dumb everything down and basically teach nothing but learned helplessness. I do my best to teach with enthusiasm, creativity, and empathy. But at the same time I strive to have higher standards than some of my peers. But still, I'm not having the impact that this guy is. Apparently I need to read his book and steal everything I can from him.
Has anyone out there read it? Opinions? Criticisms?