Drama Lessons
by Sheryl Nance-Nash
Meet the Hobart Shakespeareans–the 32 fifth graders whose second home is Rafe Esquith's classroom at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles, California. Teacher Esquith and his merry band of thespians spend their days tackling tough academic subjects like algebra, economics, and history–and then move on to rehearsals for their Shakespeare productions. The unusual troupe has appeared before the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., and at the Globe Theater in London and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
The road trips provided students like 11-year-old Kimberly Hong a glimpse into a world far different from their own, where drugs, gangs, and poverty are common. "All sorts of doors were open to us," says Hong, who excitedly rattles off the places she visited last year–"Washington, D.C., Houston, Saratoga, South Dakota, and so many others!" Says Esquith, whose passion for the Bard goes back to age three when his father started reading plays to him: "Shakespeare really isn't that different from their world. It's easy to show relevance; the themes are universal."
Esquith, 50, is a 22-year veteran teacher who likes defying the odds. No one in his class speaks English as a first language–most are Hispanic and Asian, and many are immigrants. All of his students participate in the free breakfast and lunch programs. Some come from troubled homes. Yet, they consistently score in the 91st percentile on standardized tests and frequently go on to colleges like Yale and Harvard.
Esquith enjoys giving his students the benefit of new experiences, whether it be a Dodgers baseball game, Disneyland, traveling in America and Europe, eating in an upscale restaurant, white-water rafting, attending plays and concerts, or viewing DVDs or videos from a school film club. "If you put a lot of things on the menu, you increase the chance that a child will find something that turns them on. I want to throw everything at them," says Esquith, who was named the Disney National Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 1992. He used to pay for the "things on the menu" himself by working extra jobs. Now, such class outings are funded by a nonprofit founded in 1992 by a former student who became a lawyer.
Esquith runs a quiet and orderly class. He is rarely at the front of the room, he doesn't have a desk and, despite his hard line on academics, he doesn't collect homework. "I expect a lot," he says. "These children are not running off after school to ballet classes or private music lessons. Some are going home to tiny cubicles. I want to offer them a safe haven, where they can learn, make friends, have fun, and succeed."
Says 11-year-old Lidia Medina: "We learn not just about Shakespeare, but about giving up things to get somewhere in the long run."
