Excerpt from Teach
Like Your Hair's on Fire
by Rafe Esquith
Published by Penguin Books; January 2008;$14.00US/$16.50CAN; 978-0-14-311286-0
Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA)
Inc., from
Teach
Like Your Hair's on Fire Copyright © Rafe Esquith, 2007
Replace
Fear with Trust
On the first day of school, within the first two minutes, I discuss
this issue with the children. While most classrooms are based on fear,
our classroom is based on trust. The children hear the words and like
them, but they are only words. It is deeds that will help the children
see that I not only talk the talk but walk the walk.
I use the following example with the students on their first day. Most
of us have participated in the trust exercise in which one person falls
back and is caught by a peer. Even if the catch is made a hundred times
in a row, the trust is broken forever if the friend lets you fall the
next time as a joke. Even if he swears he is sorry and will never let
you fall again, you can never fall back without a seed of doubt. My
students learn the first day that a broken trust is irreparable. Everything
else can be fixed. Miss your homework assignment? Just tell me, accept
the fact that you messed up, and we move on. Did you break something?
It happens; we can take care of it. But break my trust and the rules
change. Our relationship will be okay, but it will never, ever be what
it once was. Of course kids do break trust, and they should be given
an opportunity to earn it back. But it takes a long time. The kids are
proud of the trust I give them, and they do not want to lose it. They
rarely do, and I make sure on a daily basis that I deserve the trust
I ask of them.
I answer all questions. It does not matter if I have been asked them
before. It does not matter if I am tired. The kids must see that I passionately
want them to understand, and it never bothers me when they don’t.
During an interview, a student named Alan once told a reporter, “Last
year, I tried to ask my teacher a question. She became angry and said,
‘We’ve been over this. You weren’t listening!’ But
I was listening! I just didn’t get it! Rafe will go over something
five hundred times until I understand.”
We parents and teachers get mad at our kids all the time, and often
for good reason. Yet we should never become frustrated when a student
doesn’t understand something. Our positive and patient response
to questions builds an immediate and lasting trust that transcends fear.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rafe Esquith has been a classroom teacher for over twenty-five years
with the majority of that time spent at Hobart Elementary in Los Angeles.
He is the only teacher to be awarded the president’s National Medal
of the Arts. His many other honors include the American Teacher Award,
Parents magazine’s As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life
Award TM, being made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth,
and the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama. He lives in
Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara.
Fore more information, please visit www.hobartshakespeareans.org.
