Rafe Esquith and Common Sense Didactics: Guide for Teachers

As always, there is nothing new under the sun in education. One of the "newest" ideas in the current educational world is that 21^st century schooling needs to be student, not teacher, centered. Rather than being a dispenser of information, the teacher needs to be a facilitator of learning.

An educator named Henry Sabin writes:

The teacher cannot create, but he can awaken and stimulate the self-activities of the child's
mind. What the child does for himself to-day gives him power to do more for himself to-morrow. (11)

This Sabin quote comes from his book Common Sense Didactics published in 1903. Amazingly, the same educational problems that exist today were problems a hundred years ago too. Also, an extraordinary teacher like Rafe Esquith, author of Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, would have been extraordinary at the beginning of the twentieth century too.

Likewise, the principles of teaching and learning expounded by Henry Sabin in Common Sense Didactics are the very same common sense principles that Rafe Esquith applies inside Room 56, his fifth grade classroom in center city Los Angeles.

Let us first examine how Sabin and Esquith approach the problem of morality. Although Rafe Esquith carefully avoids this word, both Esquith and Sabin agree that it needs to be taught. Henry Sabin says:

I dwell upon these points because so many of our teachers fear to give definite and daily instruction concerning them, lest they offend some over-sensitive parent in the district. I desire here equally to emphasize the necessity of teaching our children obedience to law and reverence for constituted authority. There can be no question upon this point. Here the teacher's duty is a clear as the light of day. To live in open disregard of the laws of the land is inconsistent with the character of a good citizen, affixes to the offender the brand of disloyalty, and affords an example which the youth in our schools should be taught to shun. (127)

Rafe Esquith demonstrates creative genius by effectively teaching his students citizenship without offending "over-sensitive parents". On the first day of school he explains to his class about Lawrence Kohlberg's Six Levels of Moral Development which he terms simply the Six Levels (14). These levels go from Level I, I don't want to get into trouble to Level VI, I have a personal code of behavior and I follow it.

About Level VI Esquith states:

I teach my students about Level VI in several ways. Since I cannot discuss my own personal codes, I try to help the kids identify them in others. There are any number of outstanding books and films in which the Level VI individual exists. (22)

Esquith's favorite Level VI individual is Atticus Finch.

But Rafe Esquith, or any teacher, cannot facilitate the growth of his students without first establishing trust in his classroom. In Sabin's earlier quote he mentioned that fear keeps teachers from having the kind of classroom that fosters moral growth in children. Esquith writes that "Room 56 is a special place not because of what it has, but because of what it is missing: fear" (5).

Instead of motivating his students by fear of punishment or fear of not earning a reward, Esquith works hard to replace fear with trust. He does this in two common sense ways: (1) If he makes a promise, he always and invariably comes through on it. (2) His discipline is logical (8). He says, "In Room 56, I strive to make our activities so exciting that the worst punishment for misbehavior is to be banned from the activity during which the misbehavior occurred" (9).

Let us next examine the problem of excessive standardized testing which the powers that be seemingly do not perceive as a problem. In 1903 Henry Sabin wrote:

I fear that in many schools we are unduly hastening that which nature intended should be a slow process. The teacher, impatient of results, is either doing the work for the child, or else exacting from him a class of work which tends to overtax the growing brain. (85-86)

In these times many teachers and school administrators are "impatient of results" because of the extreme pressure put upon them for their students to test well. As Rafe Esquith comments, "Standardized testing has become a nightmare in our schools" (73).

How does Rafe Esquith handle the nightmare? He teaches his students "how to study effectively" (76).

The key word here is "effectively". Esquith teaches his students that the best way to study is to create the conditions of the test (78). He also teaches them to be relaxed about test taking. In other words, he does not worry and he teaches his students not to worry either.

Interestingly, a hundred plus years ago Henry Sabin gave the following as his best advice to teachers:

Under the limitations of this life the best advice that can be given a teacher is to cultivate cheerfulness and hope; to meet difficulties one at a time; to exercise good common sense, and more than all, not to worry. Worry is killing more teachers in America to-day than all the hard work exacted from them by rules and regulations of the board. Brain and nerves are consumed by worry, as the fuel is by flame. (29-30)

Sabin suggests that teachers leave their work at school and get outside to enjoy nature.

Rafe Esquith may never have read Sabin's book, but he certainly follows his advice. Worry and fear go hand in hand and neither is a help to the development of a child's character.

Recently, this author overheard a mother tell her three year old, "Don't go too far. Someone will take you." Now, this happened at the American Legion where all of the members are civic-minded veterans socializing with their friends and families. No one in that place was going to snatch away that child. The mother was unthinkingly instilling fear in her child and offending all around her with her words.

We parents, teachers and citizens must all do a better job of raising the next generation by banning fear from our daily culture. As Rafe Esquith says, "you must always try to see things from the child's point of view and never use fear as a shortcut for education" (6).

Esquith, Rafe. Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.

Sabin, Henry. Common Sense Didactics. Chicago: The Rand-McNally Press, 1903.