Some may not realize it, but the club’s meeting actually starts at noon with a half hour of social time. Even those watching our Zoom recordings will not have the opportunity to mingle with other members and to learn about such things as the online game Wordle (https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/),or the progress of Music Mends Minds, or the travel adventures and plans of other members. See you at noon!
The day’s president, PP Tom Barron, introduced Carol Rosenstein to give the pledge, followed by PP
Aly Shoji who recited a short and sweet (in PP Tom’s words) prayer by Myron Taylor. Ed Gauld sang
us up, up and away with the Air Force Song.
Speaking of the word “UP,” there is no word with more meanings than “up.” PP Tom recited just a few
dozen uses for the word - but missed at least one (“shut up” - just kidding, Tom).
The club will resume in-person meetings on March 3 at the Luskin Center. It will be buffet style and
will cost $51.00. These in-person meetings will generally be on the first and third Thursdays of each
month - otherwise we will continue on Zoom. March 17 will be an Irish theme in honor of St. Patrick’s
Day - bring your spouse!
Our excellent speaker was Rafe Esquith, a 1981 graduate of UCLA Mr Esquith is a teacher who taught at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School from 1984 until his resignation in 2015. Many of his students, who were all from a community of poor and immigrant families, started class very early, left late, and typically achieved high scores in standardized tests. Esquith has authored books about teaching and his annual class Shakespeare productions were featured in the 2005 documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans. His teaching honors include the 1992 Teacher of the Year, for The Walt Disney
Company's American Teacher Awards, a Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University, Oprah Winfrey's
$100,000 "Use Your Life Award," Parents Magazine's "As You Grow Award," National Medal of Arts,
and Esquith was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire. He gave a TED talk
about this subject in 2012.
A few pearls of wisdom from our speaker include:
- How do you measure teaching? Look at what becomes of the student in the future.
- What is the problem with education? It is world-wide. If you ask a student why you are doing an assignment he or she will say "because my teacher told me to do it." They don't know why they are doing it - that is the problem.
- His students have one thing in common - they love to read. Why don’t most students (other than his) read books? They have no "reading coach." Don't give a child a book and just tell the child to go read it.
- Teachers are banning books because they make people uncomfortable. He takes banned books and has his students read them.
- He will read a book to the children. Or will use an audio book (read by great readers or even the book's author) and ask the children to read along. He will also do this himself when he reads. Phil Gabriel asked about teaching the classics. You need experts to show students connections between the classic stories to today’s events. These experts must love the books they are teaching - it is infectious.
- There are a lot of educators who will not put in the time required. He doesn't do social media. He says it takes decades to become a great teacher.
- Teachers Unions never talk about the children. They are only a necessary evil.
By the way, if you would like to hear our speaker (and any speaker we’ve had on Zoom), our videos are
posted on YouTube, Vimeo, and Rumble. A link to the latest program is posted on the club’s website
(wvrc.net).
Ye Old Temporary Editor
Ron Lyster
