Sunday, August 3, 2008



Rafe Esquith teaches in a fifth-grade classroom in the heart of a Los Angeles neighborhood rife with gang violence. When kids enter the safe haven of his classroom (voluntarily arriving at 6:30 a.m. and remaining until 5:00 p.m.), they leave fear behind and learn how to trust and be trusted. In his latest book, Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire, Esquith talks about how a simple philosophy of “Be Nice. Work Hard” can inspire exceptional results.

Finding an oasis
“There is more than one way to run a successful classroom—from using the philosophy of Thoreau to the philosophy of Mussolini. Over the last 25 years, I’ve tried practically everything to deal with the often maddening behavior of children in a school environment that accepts graffiti-covered walls and urine-soaked bathroom floors as normal.

Visitors to Room 56 never come away most impressed with the academic ability of the children, the style in which I present lessons, or the cleverness of the wall decorations. They come away shaking their heads over something else: the culture of the classroom. It’s calm. It is incredibly civil. It’s an oasis. But something is missing. Ironically, Room 56 is a special place not because of what it has, but because of what it is missing: fear.

I’ve recognized that by improving the culture of my classroom, the ordinary challenges are navigated far more easily. It’s not easy to create a classroom without fear. It can take years. But it’s worth it.
While most classrooms are based on fear to keep the kids in line, our classroom is based on trust. The children hear the words and like them, but they are only words. It is deeds that will help the children see that I not only talk the talk but walk the walk.

Courtesy of Rafe Esquith and Viking Penguin

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