The Hobart Shakespeareans - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
THE HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS is a delightful profile of one phenomenal teacher and his eager students who together touchingly demonstrate the power of education. What happens in Rafe Esquith s classroom defies the odds. With genuine passion and ironclad conviction Esquith turns the Asian-American and Latino children of a violence-stricken central Los Angeles neighborhood on to the wonders of Shakespeare Mark Twain and mathematics. The Hobart Boulevard Elementary fifth-graders respond heartily rattling off the names of Shakespeare s thirty-seven plays or doing rapid-fire arithmetic in their heads. The children are refreshingly engaged as Esquith takes them to Washington D.C. to visit national monuments leads them on tours of college campuses and implores them to work hard and believe in their own self-worth. At the end of the semester they pull together--with a little help from famous actors Ian McKellen and Michael York--their final triumph: a student production of Hamlet. Through tears and laughter this endearing troupe casts aside the conventional wisdom about the failures of education in the United States. Academy Award-nominated director Mel Stuart deftly probes the secrets of Esquith s winning strategy in a story as inspiring and rewarding as it is exceptional. DVD Features: Filmmaker Interview; Filmmaker Biography; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 767685976234 Manufacturer No: NVG-9762

Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

Misleading Film August 3, 2007
15 out of 26 found this review helpful

Yes, this man is a dedicated teacher. No, his methods are not the wave of the future for educational reform or methods that would often work elsewhere. The perspective of this film is skewed by describing these students as underprivileged inner city kids. Actually they are mostly Asian and Latino immigrant students. As a successful teacher of underprivileged children myself, I can tell you from experience that it is relatively easy to teach students from immigrant families, even those who are poor and just barely learning English, because their families came to this country for more opportunity and are usually highly motivated to succeed. The true underprivileged and most challenging students are those whose impoverished families have lived in the projects for generations, have little faith left in the American system and are often unmotivated as students and parents. Families from this demographic are conspicuously absent from this model teacher's class. This is an important distinction to make, because when this teacher is touted as a "hero" and an expert on inner-city education, all too often people with less knowledge about the educational system will be awestruck and believe this is the only way to go. There are many dedicated teachers in this country who use more sustainable methods of instruction and who are valiantly struggling with much more challenging students than the ones in this film.

5 out of 5 stars

Teaching the way it SHOULD be done, very inspiring! July 5, 2006
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

One teacher takes a group of kids from the roughest neighborhoods and not only gets them to put on a production of Hamlet each year but teaches them to learn, grow and believe in themselves, day in, day out. It isn't easy and the challenges are shown in detail but this teacher also shares his philosophy - and what a philosophy it is! He admits that he failed in his first years of teaching, watching as his former students failed in middle school.
But somehow he recreated his teaching method and, in the process, has inspired countless children, gotten actors like Ian McKellan and Michael York to visit his classroom (!) and taught children who'd had teachers give up on them that they were not doomed to failure. If more teachers were like this one, what a future generation we'd have!
Great family film....great film, period.

5 out of 5 stars

A must-see DVD -- A remarkable teacher September 16, 2006
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This documentary was remarkable--moving and inspiring. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were more teachers like Rafe Asquith! Not many are willing or able to take the time out of their personal lives that he does, but it's obvious that spending those Saturdays and taking those trips with his students are more important to him than spending free time at home. It's obvious, too, that he teaches not only facts, but values and life lessons. He CARES. I just loved him.

And "guest speakers" to his classroom weren't shabby--Michael York and Ian McKellen, who said that being there made him want to cry because the students felt the same way he does about Shakespeare.

The camera work was excellent, capturing the expressions on those kids' faces--the tears, the joy, the comprehension, the pride. A scene that particularly impressed me was the one when Asquith was reading from Huckleberry Finn. The camera focused on the face of one boy and as he listened, tears rolled down his cheeks. Others, equally moved, were also shown. It's amazing that the teacher made them FEEL that story so deeply and that these ten-year-old children grasped and empathized with the Huck's inner conflict at the thought of turning in his slave friend, Jim.

Some of the Amazon reviewers of Rafe Asquith's book were critical. Some of the teachers in his own school shunned him. I'm sure it was hard for them to compete. I taught in public schools, and I can understand how they felt. In all honesty, I was not dedicated to the degree that he is. I had children of my own and could not give that kind of extra time and effort to my career even though I loved teaching. But it's still inspiring to see the true story of such a remarkable teacher, and I think anyone could learn something from his approach to teaching.

5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring and moving January 10, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

This PBS film should be viewed by everyone. It is motivational and inspiring. It truely defeats the "what can I do I'm only one person?" attitude. Makes you wish that all people had the same attitude as Rafe Esquith; the world would be a better place.

5 out of 5 stars

Where There's A Will, There's A Way December 26, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

In this enormously entertaining and moving DVD, Rafe Esquith emerges as a remarkable teacher, the rare sort who combines the ability to amuse students with the will to hold them to the highest standards. His fifth grade class at Hobart Elementrary is shown as mostly eager to rise to the challenges he poses. Such a two-way educational street leads to magical results. These include not only reading the very books (e.g. "Huck Finn," "To Kill A Mockingbird,"etc.) most students don't encounter until high school, but even putting on a Shakespeare play each year. Not surprisingly, as we learn toward the end of the DVD, many of his students in later years go on to the finest colleges and universities.

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