Nationally Recognized Teacher Suspended From His Class

I haven’t been writing a lot lately. I’ve had something on my mind but when I saw this I just had to blog about it. I have written before about seeing Rafe Esquith in person and how impressed I was with his way of reaching his students. He takes low income kids and by the end of the year they are performing Shakespeare and playing in a rock band.

So what did he do that was enough to have him banned from his classroom? H/T Latimes

Rafe Esquith, a longtime educator at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School who has written several books on teaching and received multiple awards for his work, has not been allowed to return to school since district officials launched an investigation in March.

Three months later, L.A. Unified officials have not clearly outlined the allegations against the popular teacher, said his attorney Mark Geragos. But Geragos said he learned that the investigation stemmed from a complaint by another teacher after Esquith read to a class a passage from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.

Well geez. He read a passage from an American classic book. Tar and feathers my friends! Now I have to get my rage on.

Dear administrators who made this boneheaded decision. You treat your students like cattle and now we can see you treat your teachers the same way. In a ranking of district priorities, effective teaching must not even be on the list. Stop being a faceless bureaucratic machine and realize you are affecting lives, often in bad ways.

Thanks, A concerned parent.

This sort of thing is the best advertisement for homeschooling I can think of. Grrr

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