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:

Olympic-Scale Doctor Shortage: Tapping International Talent

Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute's Senior Healthcare Policy Fellow Josh Archambault about the shortage of doctors in the U.S. and the potential for licensing reform to attract medical expertise from around the world to reduce future healthcare shortages and provide incentives for immigrating professionals to work in underserved communities.

Dinesh Wadhwani Clears the Air with Light Technology

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Dinesh Wadhwani, founder and CEO of ThinkLite, LLC in Natick, Massachusetts, and immigrant from Ghana.

Emory Uni. Prof. Mark Bauerlein on “The Dumbest Generation” & the Digital Age

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-host Cara Candal and guest co-host Prof. Robert Maranto talk with Dr. Mark Bauerlein, Senior Editor at First Things, Professor of English Emeritus at Emory University, and the author of The Dumbest Generation Grows Up. Dr. Bauerlein shares his views about the kinds of content American K-12 students should be reading for preparation for college and meaningful lives.

Transit Innovation Explored: A Bus As Fast As A Train?

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with transportation expert Ian Ollis about the findings of his new research paper, "Bus Rapid Transit: Costs and Benefits of a Transit Alternative," which examines the benefits of building Bus Rapid Transit to serve communities looking for faster transit alternatives to a car.

Parent Advocate Virginia Walden Ford on Civil Rights, School Choice, & the D.C. Voucher Program

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-host Gerard Robinson and guest co-host Derrell Bradford talk with Virginia Walden Ford, education advocate and author of Voices, Choices, and Second Chances, and School Choice: A Legacy to Keep. She shares her experiences growing up and desegregating high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas in the mid-1960s, and the lessons she carried forward in her school choice advocacy in Washington, D.C.

Who Counts Electors: Tackling Ambiguities In Federal Election Laws

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with constitutional scholar Thomas Berry about the process for electing U.S. presidents and the efforts underway to modernize the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to forestall frivolous challenges in the future.

Anuradha Sajjanhar, PhD on Immigrants’ Role in Pandemic Recovery

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Dr. Anuradha Sajjanhar, lead researcher for the report Immigrant Essential Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic published by The Immigrant Learning Center, co-producer of this podcast. She found that immigrants, despite playing an outsized role in industries deemed essential such as healthcare, food and agriculture, and the supply chain, were largely left out of federal and state support during the pandemic, which negatively affected their safety and their efforts to help Americans weather this crisis. The report offers a path forward, as you’ll learn in this week’s JobMakers.

U of SC Prof. Jennifer Frey on National Catholic Schools Week & Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction

As we celebrate National Catholic Schools Week, “The Learning Curve" co-host Cara Candal talks with Dr. Jennifer Frey, an associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. Dr. Frey shares why Catholic education is so vitally important in the lives of families, schoolchildren, and communities, with its commitment to nurturing an appreciation for “the true, the good, and the beautiful” among students from all faith backgrounds.

Fair Share Flimflam: Misleading Ballot Summary Could Distort Voter Choice

Joe Selvaggi talks with Attorney Kevin Martin, appellate litigator at Goodwin Proctor, about the complaint filed with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court regarding the summary language on the 2022 "Fair Share Tax” ballot initiative. Kevin explains how the language misleads the public about the impact of their vote on revenue, spending, and our state’s constitution.

Rodrigo Souza Cooks Up Success

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Rodrigo Souza, immigrant from Brazil and owner of Comeketo Brazilian Steakhouse in Leominster, Massachusetts. Drawing on the resourcefulness and doggedness of his Brazilian culture, Rodrigo built a successful business here in the United States, creating around 400 jobs since his restaurant opened in 2009.

Andrew Campanella on National School Choice Week

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Andrew Campanella, the president of National School Choice Week. They discuss why 2021 was called the “Year of School Choice,” and the implications of more academic options for K-12 education reform across America.

Mandate’s Constitutional Collision: Court Offers Civics Lesson with Vaccine Rulings

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute Vice President Ilya Shapiro about the recent Supreme Court vaccine mandate rulings and what they tell us about the limits of executive branch power and the sitting justices’ views on the guidance of the U.S. Constitution.