Recently my husband stumbled across Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith. He listened to it as an e-book from the public library and really liked it. So he got the book for me and I read it too. It's a quick read and interesting. I'm not sure how life-changing it will be for anyone, but with all the debate about education, it is certainly relevant. Education is the new wealth, according to George Will.
Perhaps what I liked most about the book is hearing the ways that he has been successful in helping lower-income children rise above their circumstances and move out of this impoverished world that they live in. One of the ways he does this is through high expectations. He requires an essay from his students every week and a very long book report every month. He has a book club and tries to instill a love of reading in his students. He has a movie club that any student may join but checking out a movie means some work in filling out a worksheet about the movie and the movie has to be returned in good condition. He has the students in his class apply for jobs for which they are paid in pretend money. The students are required to pay rent with this pretend money on their desks and the more disciplined students can save their money so they can purchase desks and charge other students rent. None of the students in his class come from homes where they own property so this is a new concept for them. When they own property, even if it's just pretend, they think about themselves differently.
Another idea that I liked (and which has really captured my husband's attention) is his use of the six levels of motivation. I won't list all of them here, but he talks about how he tries to get the students to do things for higher motivations than many students do. Those two highest levels are empathy for others and following a certain code of conduct because it's the right thing to do. I wish he would have gone into more detail as to how he teaches this because this is something I would like to work on in my family. Certainly he has been able to teach many of these kids to think about the kind of people they want to be and be very purposeful in that.
I'm not sure how Rafe has any kind of life outside of his job. He spends a huge amount of time at school, including early mornings, evenings, and Saturdays. Most teachers are not able and not willing to dedicate as much time to their profession as this man does. He obviously considers it a calling. I am not sure I would even want him to be one of my children's teachers because they would spend huge amounts of time at school when I would want them to be home! But for the neighborhood that he works in, this may be entirely appropriate where family life is not functioning well at all and these children need more structure and vision as to where they can go in their lives. For those kids, he may have made all the difference.
I am always glad to see teachers who raise the bar and have high expectations for their students. We definitely need more of that.
Perhaps what I liked most about the book is hearing the ways that he has been successful in helping lower-income children rise above their circumstances and move out of this impoverished world that they live in. One of the ways he does this is through high expectations. He requires an essay from his students every week and a very long book report every month. He has a book club and tries to instill a love of reading in his students. He has a movie club that any student may join but checking out a movie means some work in filling out a worksheet about the movie and the movie has to be returned in good condition. He has the students in his class apply for jobs for which they are paid in pretend money. The students are required to pay rent with this pretend money on their desks and the more disciplined students can save their money so they can purchase desks and charge other students rent. None of the students in his class come from homes where they own property so this is a new concept for them. When they own property, even if it's just pretend, they think about themselves differently.
Another idea that I liked (and which has really captured my husband's attention) is his use of the six levels of motivation. I won't list all of them here, but he talks about how he tries to get the students to do things for higher motivations than many students do. Those two highest levels are empathy for others and following a certain code of conduct because it's the right thing to do. I wish he would have gone into more detail as to how he teaches this because this is something I would like to work on in my family. Certainly he has been able to teach many of these kids to think about the kind of people they want to be and be very purposeful in that.
I'm not sure how Rafe has any kind of life outside of his job. He spends a huge amount of time at school, including early mornings, evenings, and Saturdays. Most teachers are not able and not willing to dedicate as much time to their profession as this man does. He obviously considers it a calling. I am not sure I would even want him to be one of my children's teachers because they would spend huge amounts of time at school when I would want them to be home! But for the neighborhood that he works in, this may be entirely appropriate where family life is not functioning well at all and these children need more structure and vision as to where they can go in their lives. For those kids, he may have made all the difference.
I am always glad to see teachers who raise the bar and have high expectations for their students. We definitely need more of that.
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