Rafe Esquith has taught elementary school children in a public school in Los Angeles for the last three decades. And he is still not only very sane, he is also brimming with enthusiasm for teaching and is looking for new things to do, new ways to reach his students, to motivate them, to make them grow intellectually and to make them into better human beings and citizens. Rafe is a rare phenomenon indeed. But one who can teach us, all humans, and not just the teachers, a lot about life, love and living.

Esquith’s rare quality has been recognised. He is the only teacher in the US to have received the President’s National Medal of the Arts. He has also been made a member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth and has a host of other awards and acknowledgements of his excellence as a teacher. Real Talk for Real Teachers is his fourth book on teachers and teaching.

Teaching is not easy. Despite contrary beliefs, I have always found teaching to be rewarding but exhausting. Even a few hours of teaching, and I have only taught at the university level, leave me completely drained. The reward is the occasional and sometime more than occasional twinkle of understanding in the eyes of a few students or even one student. But it is hard work. Most people, many even amongst the teachers, think teaching is easy: it is just standing in front of a class and delivering a lecture. I guess the difference lies in how one teaches. And Rafe’s book brings that out clearly.

Rafe’s typical day starts at 5am and he is in his class by 6am. The school does not start till 8am, but some of Rafe’s students come early to work on areas and / or projects they need extra time or help with. And though school ends at 2.30pm, Rafe stays in class till 5pm to work with students on their extra projects, such as the Shakespeare play that his students stage every year and the music that is needed for the play. So, it is an 11-hour workday in class and Rafe has sustained this, with enthusiasm, for almost three decades. Talk of teaching being an easy profession!

Real Talk for Real Teachers is about advice to teachers: from novices to veterans. From how Rafe sets expectations for students, how he deals with discipline issues and / or deviations from expectations, how he deals with more difficult students, and caters to student diversity, in terms of level, ability and motivation, is very well documented and should give all teachers plenty to think about. But this is only one of the contributions that the book makes. The book is quite a primer for students, a source of inspiration and motivation for teachers, especially for those in need of a picker-upper, and it is a good take on what it is like to be a professional. The list above is not even close to being exhaustive.

Rafe’s 10 rules for Hobart Shakespeareans (he teaches at Hobart Elementary School) are a guide for students to grow with. Be nice, work hard and there are no shortcuts are the first few rules (I am leaving out the others for readers to find out for themselves). I cannot think of a better place to start with for elementary school children. And it is not Rafe’s way to drill these rules into children by using sticks and or by emotionally or otherwise blackmailing them. He expects them to live up to these. Those who do get to participate in a lot of extra activities on their own and with other children. Those who deviate and show they are not responsible enough to participate in other activities (trip to Washington, Shakespeare play, arts and crafts projects, learning musical instruments) have to mend their behaviour and thinking before they are allowed back in.

This does not mean Rafe is able to transform every student. There are always a few who do not bite. Rafe insists on doing his best with them, but he is fine with some students refusing to engage and benefit from learning opportunities available. Children come from very diverse backgrounds and a teacher and a school can only do that much to level the field for them. A teacher has to balance the needs of all her students in class and so there are limits to what she can do for each.

More than the challenges that are posed by difficult children or children with very diverse abilities and learning levels as they enter a class, it is the administration and the education bureaucracy that is the source of major challenges for teachers and for sustaining high levels of motivation for teaching. Rafe has some advice to deal with these issues too. When the administration cancels a trip, which had been planned months in advance, without a warning and due reason, when students / teachers are suddenly not allowed to access classes before or after school hours, and when lack of resources hampers good teaching, Rafe has some suggestions on what to do and how to get round some of these problems. Mostly it has to do with not banging one’s head against the administrative / bureaucratic wall and to find ways around it. The particular strategies might or might not be useful, but the general method should be of interest across schooling contexts.

It does take a village to raise a child. Rafe does not teach alone. To do all that he does with his students and for so many years, he has had to get a lot of help from a lot of people: musicians, actors, directors, photographers, lighting experts, lyrics writers, other teachers, and most importantly of all, his ex-students. Ex-students visit his class all the time. Some mentor students, others help in showing students what is possible even if they come from challenged backgrounds, and some even help with the day-to-day activities of his class. The key to involvement with Rafe’s class is commitment and professionalism. Professionals are on time, they take their work with utmost seriousness, and they espouse and practice some of the same virtues that Rafe has identified in his 10 rules for Room 56 (Rafe’s classroom).

It has been a long time since I was in grade 5. But reading Rafe’s book I wanted to go back and be a student in his class. A year with Rafe would have made me a very different person and, very likely, a much better, more efficient and more productive person. Even now, it has given me a lot of think about. I cannot think of a better reason to read him.

Real Talk for Real Teachers: Advice for Teachers from Rookies to Veterans: “No Retreat, No Surrender!”

By Rafe Esquith

Viking, New York

ISBN 0670014648

319pp.