Experience, not talent is what makes a great teacher, says the man widely acclaimed to be the nation’s best classroom teacher. In an interview in Teacher Magazine Rafe Esquith says, “I speak all over the country, and I meet so many great young teachers, and I’m trying to show them that I’m a truly ordinary guy, but because I stuck with it and persevered, I got good at it. Not because of talent, but because of experience! I’m really trying to encourage a lot of young teachers to try and stick with it and get through those tough times because there are better times ahead if they can do so.”
Asked if every child can be as successful as the kids in his legendary Room 56 at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles, Esquith is unequivocal:
I don’t. I think there are some students where the odds are so far against them because of their family situation and other social issues. But here’s what I do know: There are hundreds of thousands of students in our school district who could be like the students of Room 56, who are absolutely capable, but they’re not being given the opportunity. I do think that the goal should be that we’re going to give every child the opportunity to be the best they can be. Right now, we’re not doing that. And as I always tell the kids, ‘It’s not my job to save your soul, but it’s my job to give you an opportunity to save your own soul.’ I can’t make a kid smarter or better, but I can give them the opportunity to become that and show them how to do that. That’s my job, and that’s a parent’s job creating opportunities.”
Obviously, this is not a page ripped from the no-excuses, teacher-must-overcome-all-obstacles hymnal. It echoes a bracing moment in the superb 2007 PBS documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans, where Esquith is seen lecturing at a Teach For America conference in Houston. “I want to let you know that some children should be left behind. I know, you read your magazine articles, ‘every child is a golden drop of sunshine.’ It’s a lie. All children must be given an equal opportunity, and our children do not get an equal opportunity. But once given that equal opportunity, the children have to produce,” he concludes. Later, offstage, speaking to a handful of young TFA corp members, he goes one step further. “Anybody who sits in there and goes, ‘I get to all the kids?’ It’s bullshit. They don’t.’”
Esquith may not be invited to future TFA conferences after his comments in Teacher Magazine. “The concept for getting some of our very bright students into the classroom is a good one. But to give these folks five weeks of training and throw them into tough classroom situations is questionable to me,” he says. “I’ve had hundreds of TFA people in my classroom, and they’re wonderful. But I don’t think the concept is going to work because nobody is a great teacher after two years.”
Esquith, who has a new book coming out this fall, also admits to being “panicked” about the current state of American education:
I think if we continue along the path that we’re going, our greatest days are behind us. But, I still believe we can turn it around. That’s why I’m still in the classroom, and I’m gonna do my best. But as long as we embrace “testing is everything,” and as long as we keep shrinking art programs and physical education programs, we’re not in a good place. Those are the things that inspire kids to do great things, so I hope we keep enlarging them, not shrinking them.
When a teacher of Esquith’s stature and experience says we’re headed down the wrong path, it’s time to sit up and take notice.
