Editorial Staff

Rafe Esquith on Teaching Shakespeare to Inner-City LA Students

/in , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Gerard and Cara talk with Rafe Esquith, an award-winning teacher at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles, and the founder of The Hobart Shakespeareans, who annually stage performances of unabridged plays by William Shakespeare. He shares why he founded the award-winning program to teach disadvantaged Los Angeles elementary school students a classical humanities curriculum, the most inspiring experiences and the biggest challenges of teaching highly demanding literary works to young schoolchildren from diverse backgrounds. They explore techniques he uses to help students connect with Shakespeare as well as great authors across the ages.

Stories of the Week: The University of California system agreed Friday to extend its test-free admissions policy through 2025, addressing claims that the use of SAT and ACT results discriminates against applicants based on race, income, and disability. Responding to inequities with regard to internet access that were revealed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Education will subsidize broadband service for millions of underprivileged K-12 students and college students.

Guest:

Rafe Esquith has been teaching in the public school system in Los Angeles for thirty-two years. For the last six years, The Hobart Shakespeareans troupe that he founded has been run privately, but only works with economically disadvantaged students. One-hundred percent of the students in the program are accepted into top universities. Esquith is the only classroom teacher to have been awarded the President’s National Medal of the Arts, and has also been made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. His many other honors include the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama, the Walt Disney National American Teacher of the Year Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award, Parents Magazine’s As You Grow Award, the Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, and People magazine’s Heroes Among Us Award. Esquith has published four books on education, including the international bestseller Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire. He presented at the prestigious TED conference in 2012. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara Tong.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, May 19th, 2021 at 12 pm ET with guest, Dr. Farouk El-Baz, is retired research professor and director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University. He was supervisor of Lunar Science Planning for NASA’s Apollo program.

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

Bloomberg – UCs Won’t Require SAT, ACT Scores Through 2025

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-14/university-of-california-set-to-drop-sat-act-through-2025

Department of Education Launches Outreach Campaign to Millions of K-12 Students and Federal Pell Grant Recipients Now Eligible for Monthly Discounts on Broadband Internet Service

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-education-launches-outreach-campaign-millions-k-12-students-and-federal-pell-grant-recipients-now-eligible-monthly-discounts-broadband-internet-service

Get new episodes of The Learning Curve in your inbox!

Browse Pioneer’s Recent Podcast Episodes:

Ashley Soifer on Microschools, Pods, & Homeschooling

This week on The Learning Curve, Ashley Soifer, Chief Innovation Officer of the National Microschooling Center discusses these innovative schooling options, in which families and innovators are using a wide array of education choices that offer parents flexibility and greater control over how, where, what, and when their children learn.

Accessing Healthcare Anywhere: Lessons For Liberalizing Telehealth

Joe Selvaggi talks with Josh Archambault about the benefits of state policies to enable interstate telehealth that empowers patients to reach their healthcare professionals in other states, and for providers to offer service anywhere they are needed.

UVA Prof. Dan Willingham on Learning Science & K-12 Schooling

This week on The Learning Curve, University of Virginia Professor Dan Willingham discusses the psychology of learning, his advocacy of using scientific knowledge in classroom teaching and education policy, and his critique of the “learning styles theory” of education.

Silicon Valley Bust: Bank Failure’s Causes, Cures, and Culpability

Joe Selvaggi talks with financial market and monetary policy expert Dr. Norbert J. Michel about the causes for the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the what its demise portends for depositors, the banking sector, and the regulatory regime that governs it.

UK Oxford’s Sir Jonathan Bate on Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’

This week on The Learning Curve, U.K. Oxford and ASU Shakespeare scholar Prof. Sir Jonathan Bate, discusses Shakespeare's timeless play Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. Sir Jonathan explains the Roman lessons for American constitutionalism, including warnings against the dangers of dictatorship and civil war.

Erick Widman, Esq.: Immigrants Can Ease Worker Shortage

The immigration system in the United States is complex, to say the least. Visa categories for nearly every letter of the alphabet, exemptions, restrictions, rule changes with every new federal administration. We need more workers, innovators and entrepreneurs in an increasingly competitive world and amid an historic worker shortage and cash-strapped social safety systems due to a greying workforce. Does the United States’ immigration system work in its favor?

Lauren Redniss on Marie Curie, STEM, & Women’s History

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard mark Women's History Month with Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, the first work of visual nonfiction to be named a finalist for the National Book Award.

“The Last Candid Man”: B.U.’s Dr. John Silber

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Rachel Silber Devlin about her memoir, Snapshots of My Father, John Silber, which captures the wide-ranging and remarkable life of the late philosopher, teacher, and president of Boston University.

Public Union Constitutionality: Returning Government Accountability to the People

0 Comments
/
Joe Selvaggi talks with Philip K. Howard about the legal theories in his newly released book, Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions, which questions whether the structure of public employees unions frustrates the will of the people, and abrogates the responsibility of elected officials to an unelected and unaccountable privileged class.

OECD’s Andreas Schleicher on PISA & K-12 Global Education

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), discusses global K-12 education, skills, and competition.

Realizing Rent Control: Targeted Tenant Relief or Broad-Based Road to Ruin

0 Comments
/
Joe Selvaggi talks with Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s President and CEO Greg Vasil about the likely effect on all residents of Boston of Mayor Wu's rent control proposal now before the City Council.

India Unbound: Gurcharan Das on the Rise of the World’s Largest Free-Market Democracy

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Gurcharan Das, author, public intellectual, and former CEO of Procter & Gamble India, discusses the rise of India since independence to become a thriving, incredibly diverse nation of 1.4 billion people—the world's largest free-market democracy.