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:

Doctors Beyond Borders: Firefly Health Shines a Light on Virtual Primary Care

0 Comments
/
Join Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi as he speaks with Firefly Health President Fay Rotenberg and Primary Care Doctor and Co-Founder Jeff Greenberg as they discuss the promise and potential of virtual primary care to deliver direct doctor access, price transparency, and more holistic healthcare that may revolutionize the healthcare system.

President of D.C.’s AppleTree Institute, Jack McCarthy on Charter Schools and Fall Reopening

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Jack McCarthy, president and CEO of AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation and board chair of AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School. Jack shares what animated him to establish this highly innovative early childhood charter public school network that serves the most vulnerable children in Washington, D.C.

Non-Profits Facing COVID-19: Charles River’s Esplanade Association on Why It’s No Walk in the Park

0 Comments
/
Join host Joe Selvaggi as he talks with Esplanade Association’s executive director Michael Nichols about how he and other non-profits adapt to a surge in demand for services while coping with a collapse in fundraising opportunities.

“Call Me Ishmael” Melville Scholar Prof. Hershel Parker on Moby-Dick & Classic Literature

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Gerard and guest co-host Kerry McDonald, senior education fellow with the Foundation for Economic Education, are joined by Hershel Parker, the H. Fletcher Brown professor emeritus at the University of Delaware and the definitive biographer of the 19th-century American novelist, Herman Melville.

Student Loan Collective Bargaining: Leveraging Loan Aggregation for Better Rates

0 Comments
/
Join Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi as he talks with Chris Abkarians and Nikhil Argawal, co-founders of LeverEdge, about how their new student loan platform uses loan aggregation and competition to secure better rates for student loans.

NYT #1 Best-Selling Science Author, Dava Sobel on Copernicus, Galileo’s Daughter, & Astronomy

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, and author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, and Letters to Father. Dava describes what inspired her interest in some of the most gifted mathematicians and astronomers in history, including Copernicus and Galileo, and the tensions between religion and science.

COVID & Classrooms: Lessons for Students, Staff, & Society on Reopening Schools

0 Comments
/
Join host Joe Selvaggi and co-host Rebekah Paxton of Pioneer Institute as they talk with Harvard Medical School Professor Benjamin Sommers on the most current scientific observations regarding the health and safety of reopening schools.

Widow of Civil Rights Icon, Dr. Sephira Shuttlesworth on Desegregating Schools & Racial Equity

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dr. Sephira Shuttlesworth, a retired teacher and charter school leader, and the widow of the late Birmingham, Alabama, civil rights leader, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

WSJ Children’s Book Critic & Author, Meghan Cox Gurdon on Reading Aloud to Children in the Age of Distraction

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Meghan Cox Gurdon, the Wall Street Journal’s children’s book reviewer and author of The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction.

COVID Transmission: A Scientist’s Insight on What Matters

0 Comments
/
Join Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Institute co-host Bill Smith as they talk with Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Ed Nardell about his scientific observations on how the novel coronavirus is spread and what can be done to make our schools, buildings, and lives in public safer.

Boston Uni.’s Dr. Charles Glenn on School Choice, Civil Rights, & Espinoza

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dr. Charles Glenn, Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Boston University. Dr. Glenn shares his early experiences in the Civil Rights movement, and how it inspired his work to expand school choice, as well as his thoughts on the Espinoza Supreme Court case's impact on racial justice and religious liberty.

Foster Family Fixes: Serving Our Most Vulnerable Children with Foster Care Reform

0 Comments
/
Join Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Senior Healthcare Fellow Josh Archambault as they discuss specific reforms that could improve the current foster care system. Josh shares findings from his recent research, as well as his experiences as a foster parent himself.