DO NOT MISS THIS DOCUMENTARY ON PBS! Thursday the 20th, 9pm
Imagine the sight and sound of American nine- and eleven-year-old children performing Shakespeare's Hamlet or Henry V — and understanding every word they recite. Imagine them performing well enough to elicit praise from such accomplished Shakespearean actors as Ian McKellen and Michael York, and to be invited to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. Such a spectacle would be highly impressive in the toniest of America's private schools. But what if the kids were the children of recent Latino and Asian immigrants attending a large Los Angeles inner-city public school in one of America's toughest neighborhoods?
That is the astonishing story told by the new documentary "The Hobart Shakespeareans," which discovers how one man's uncommon commitment and resourcefulness have opened up worlds of opportunity for his "disadvantaged" students — and perhaps have demonstrated a way forward for America's beleaguered public education system.
The Latino- and Asian-American children crowding Los Angeles' sprawling Hobart Boulevard Elementary face daunting odds. Their neighborhood in the heart of Central Los Angeles is better known for crime than for opportunity. They grow up in low-income households. Their school, typically for public education in poor districts, is under-funded and overcrowded. Most of their parents do not speak English. No one is giving these kids educational perks, like class trips and intensive tutoring. And no one is expecting any but the smartest and luckiest to rise beyond the limitations of their environment. No one, that is, except Rafe Esquith.
"The Hobart Shakespeareans" finds fifth-grade teacher Esquith has very strong — some might say uncompromising — ideas about educating today's children of immigrants. He has developed a renowned if unusual battery of methods, challenging those who would expect less from immigrant children. The one thing Esquith insists on is expecting the best from these kids, no matter what their backgrounds are, and he backs up that expectation by giving them the educational resources to defy the odds. "I fear something for these children," Esquith says. "And it's not gangs; it's not drugs. What I fear is that they're ordinary. I don't want my students to be ordinary; I want them to be extraordinary because I know that they are."
With that abiding faith — and passion — Esquith leads his fifth-graders through a rigorous core curriculum of English, mathematics, geography and literature. But he goes further, creating a real-world learning environment. The film shows how it works: students must apply for a job, such as banker, office monitor, clerk, janitor, police officer and many others. Each child receives a monthly "paycheck" in a classroom currency. They correspondingly pay rent to sit at their desks — the closer to the front of the room, the higher the rent. Students can make extra money by getting good grades and participating in extracurricular activities; they can also be fined for breaking class rules or getting poor grades. The classroom motto is "Be nice, work hard. There are no shortcuts." Esquith also inspires them with cross-country trips to learn history firsthand — and to experience a world
of opportunity beyond the troubled confines of Central LA.
The pinnacle of achievement for the students each year is the performance of a play by Shakespeare; during the year of filming, the play was Hamlet. Lest anyone think these kids might be performing adolescent skits, think again. Esquith's students perform full-length, unabridged versions, and spend the year studying the plays so that they understand every word and allusion; they arrive at class at 6:30 a.m. and don't leave until 5 p.m. in order to do so.
In "The Hobart Shakespeareans," student Alan Avila plays Hamlet, Brenda De Leon is a breathtaking Ophelia, Damien Mendieta is Polonius and Lidia Medina is Gertrude, and each testifies to the impact of Esquith's class. Avila, a former problem student, tells us his favorite book is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "because it holds a mirror to our nature…shows us how humans really think." "It was easier to memorize lines than to learn character," opines Mendieta like a veteran thespian. And Medina says, "This is the best thing that's ever happened to me, performing and showing what I've worked for in front of all those people!"
The efforts of the "Hobart Shakespeareans" have drawn the attention and help of such renowned actors as Michael York and Sir Ian McKellen, who, fresh from playing the wizard Gandolf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, sends quite a ripple of excitement through Esquith's fifth-graders when he visits. But he is clearly as delighted with them as they are with him. And it's easy to see why — these students embrace Shakespeare as one of their own. York calls the Hobart Shakespeareans "one of the great Shakespeare troupes" in Los Angeles.
That's where some controversy accrues to Esquith's methods. What's he doing teaching Shakespeare — or other "dead white men" such as Mark Twain — to Latino- and Asian-American kids in Central LA, anyway? Shouldn't he be teaching them something more relevant to their lives? The class, it turns out, also reads The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. But Esquith is an unreconstructed humanist. In the first place, he feels he should teach what he loves. He also believes that seizing the universal human element in seemingly disparate material is a key to learning, and to a wider world of knowledge and achievement. Rather than favoring the kids' disadvantages, Esquith wants to turn these liabilities on their heads. "If a 10-year-old, who doesn't speak English at home, can step in front of you and do a scene from Shakespeare," says Esquith, "then there is nothing
that he cannot accomplish."
Beyond controversy are the results of Esquith's multi-faceted program. An uncommon number of former Hobart Shakespeareans have moved on to attend top colleges and universities throughout the country. "I have students at Harvard, at Yale, at Swarthmore and UCLA," says Esquith. "My younger students were invited to give a performance at the US Supreme Court, and my older students to give a performance at the Globe Theatre in London. It was the greatest day of my teaching life."
At first, Esquith and his wife, Barbara, funded his program out of their own pockets and with prodigious expenditures of their time and energy. Today, donations from major corporations and private individuals cover the cost of the class's extra-curricular activities None of these funds are used to supplement Esquith's salary as an inner-city school teacher.
Some say that Esquith's successes are the product of a singular sense of mission, and therefore not examples broadly applicable to an education crisis in which poor kids in poor schools fall ever farther behind. But what Esquith has proved, albeit through singular sacrifice, is that with the best educational tools — tools that society could provide if it wanted — any kid can succeed. That, for Rafe Esquith, is the American dream.
"With all my thrilling experiences in the movie business, this was a wonderful film to shoot," says producer/director Mel Stuart. "We can see these kids blossom and open up. It's a testament to the powers of art and to the difference one thoroughly committed person can make."
9. It’s important to try to talk with your kids about tough issues often, but there isn’t always time in the day to sit down for a long talk. Also, kids tend
to resist formal discussions about today’s toughest issues, often categorizing them as just another lecture from mom and dad. But if we use “talk opportunities,” moments that arise in everyday life, as occasions for discussion, our children will be a lot less likely to tune us out. For instance, a newspaper item about a child expelled from school for carrying a gun to class can help you start a discussion on guns and violence. A public service TV commercial can give you an opportunity to talk about AIDS.
When Children Grieve [part 3 of 3]
How teachers and counselors can reach out to bereaved students.
by Susan Black
How children grieve
Children who grieve over the death of a parent, grandparent, brother or sister, or friend often are "the forgotten mourners," says Susan Smith, author of a book by that name. Smith and other researchers on childhood and adolescent bereavement say most adults mistakenly assume that kids bounce back after a short mourning period. And they incorrectly believe that kids' grief steadily diminishes until it ends for good.
But grief often submerges and re-emerges, in varying intensity, for months and years. How children and teens understand death -- and how they grieve -- depends on factors such as age and developmental stage; ethnic culture and beliefs; and whether the death was caused by disease, accident, or suicide.
Many children experience "complicated grief" that involves serious and long-lasting physical and emotional reactions, says Columbia University's Grace Christ, who explains how children's developmental stages affect their understanding of death and the form their mourning takes:
• 3- to 5-year-olds do not understand the permanence of death; ask repeatedly when the deceased person is coming back; are frightened by adults' grieving; demand a replacement for the deceased. Complicated grief includes anxiety and regressive behaviors longer than six months after the death.
• 6- to 8-year-olds understand that death is universal and permanent; assume blame and guilt for the death; mourn through stories, pictures, and remembrances. Complicated grief includes school refusal, physical symptoms, suicidal thoughts, and regressive emotions and behavior.
• 9- to 11-year-olds demand detailed information about the death; avoid sadness and other strong emotions; increasingly express anger; feel a sense of the deceased's presence. Complicated grief includes shunning friends and increased moodiness and misbehavior three to six months after the death.
• 12- to 14-year-olds act callous, indifferent, and egocentric; strongly sense the deceased person's presence; describe ongoing conversations with the deceased and take comfort in the deceased's clothing and possessions. Complicated grief includes refusing to attend school, persistent depression, drug or alcohol use, associating with delinquents, and precocious sexual behavior.
• 15- to 17-year-olds express thoughtfulness and empathy; resist excessive demands at home; feel overwhelmed by survivors' emotional dependence and grief; grieve in adultlike ways with sadness and painful memories, but grief is of shorter duration; worry about their own vulnerability and death; have private conversations with the deceased. Complicated grief includes mood swings, withdrawal from friends and group activities, poor school performance, and high-risk behaviors such as drug use.
Levels of grief, levels of care
Grief is compounded when the death is a suicide. Cynthia Pfeiffer, director of the Childhood Bereavement Program at Cornell University's Weill Medical College, found that 6- to 12-year-olds who lost a parent or sibling to suicide experienced "significant emotional and behavioral problems, such as anxiety and depression." The children suffered intense sadness, longing for the deceased, worry about losing another relative, guilt, and concern about explaining the death-by-suicide to others.
Some symptoms take months or years to subside. Teens grieving for a friend who committed suicide were depressed and anxious seven months after the death; for some these problems persisted for more than three years. Teens who have witnessed a suicide are vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder and often try to douse their grief with drugs and alcohol.
The more complicated a child's grief, says Julie Stokes of Britain's Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, the higher the level of service required. Stokes recommends a three-tiered model:
Tier 1: Support is provided by teachers, school nurses and counselors, parents, friends, church members, and others; support is based on caring and friendship, but is not therapeutic.
Tier 2: Therapeutic interventions are provided by trained staff and volunteers who have expertise in grief counseling.
Tier 3: Therapy for severely grief-impaired children is provided by highly skilled clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and family therapists who specialize in bereavement counseling.
Parents and teachers should remember that they "cannot shield grieving children from sorrow," says Nancy McEntire, a researcher with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative. But they can guide and comfort children through their mourning and bereavement.
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Wellness Center
Jennifer Kenny-Baum (Wellness Coordinator) is available daily.
Monica Murphy (Nurse) is available daily.
Ian Enriquez (Youth Outreach Coordinator) is available daily.
Sheening Lin (psychologist) is available daily.
Ulash Thakore (Academic Counselor) is available Monday thru Wednesday.
German Cheung (Counselor) is available on Mondays.
Lauren Marks (Counselor) is available Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Kory Okun (Relationship Counselor) is available Tuesdays.
Wayne Hayes (Counselor) is available on Wednesdays.
James Guay (Therapist) is available on Wednesdays.
Pauline Ong (Cantonese Speaking Counselor) is available on Wednesdays.
Megan Agee (Community Safety Organizer) is available on Thursdays.
Sonia Sztejnklaper (Russian Speaking Counselor) is available on Fridays.
Vicky Fashho (Arabic Speaking Counselor) is available on Fridays
How to Stay Looking Young
by Kathleen Doheny
Here are the 10 unhealthy behaviors mentioned most often by anti-aging experts -- and how to reform yourself.
Getting too much sun
Every year, more than a million people in the U.S. find out they have skin cancer -- and another 55,000 find out they have the most deadly form, melanoma. Limiting sun exposure and wearing a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15 cut the risk of skin cancer as well as wrinkles.
Getting too little sleep
Being sleep deprived used to be a badge of honor. Now, lack of sleep has been linked to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and memory problems, even in young adults. Clean up your bedroom so it's a sleeper's paradise, says Ronald Klatz, DO, MD, president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in Chicago. "Keep TVs and other distractions out of there," he says. Install shades or blinds so the bedroom is pitch dark.
Being overweight
Excess weight boosts the chances of heart disease, diabetes and even cancer, yet an astounding 64 percent of adult Americans weigh too much. The latest research suggests the type of diet you choose is less important than your vow to stick with it. When researchers compared four popular plans -- Weight Watchers, Ornish, Atkins and the Zone -- the weight loss after a year was comparable, they reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But the dropout rate was high for each. The key to success: Pick a diet that fits your lifestyle, and you're more likely to stick with it.
Eating too much sugar
Excess sugar can lead to weight gain and possibly heart disease. Nutrition experts advise keeping "added sugars" in snacks and cookies to 12 teaspoons a day on a 2,200-calorie diet, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture found the consumption was typically 31 teaspoons a day in 2000. To cut back, turn to fruits and sweet vegetables to tame the craving. Read labels to minimize your intake of added sugars.
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