Premiere Date: September 6, 2005
Synopsis
Teacher Rafe Esquith has a point of view — a very strong one — about educating children of immigrants. Teaching in Los Angeles at one of the nation's largest inner-city grade schools, Hobart Elementary, Esquith leads his class of fifth graders through an uncompromising curriculum of English, mathematics, geography and literature. He inspires them with cross-country trips to learn history first-hand. And at the end of the semester, every student performs in a full-length Shakespeare play: in this case Hamlet, with advice from actors Ian McKellen and Michael York. Despite language barriers and poverty, these Hobart Shakespeareans move on to attend outstanding colleges, motivated by a teacher honored with a National Medal of Arts. A co-presentation with Thirteen/WNET New York.
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Average Review
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former homeschool mother/ ed advocate
| by Janet Moyers Bowmer
Every student hoping to teach in this country should see this. Mr. Esquith's books should be required reading. If a fraction of our teachers were this dedicated we would live in an entirely different and vastly better society.