If a child is going to grow into a truly special adult–someone who thinks, considers other points of view, has an open mind, and possesses the ability to discuss great ideas with other people–a love of reading is an essential foundation. Rafe Esquith More Quotes by Rafe Esquith More Quotes From Rafe Esquith One of the funny things about the racism of the system, when I started 30 years ago, I'm in an area called Koreatown and most of the kids were Asian. And when the kids did well, people said, "Well, of course, they did well. They're Asians." But when we had this huge influx of Latino children from Central America, they said, "Oh, you're gonna have problems now." Rafe Esquith kids children years I have students who are PhDs in music who come back and scored the music and teach the kids the instruments that I don't know how to play. Those are the points of light, the former students. Rafe Esquith light play kids I always tell the kids that excellence is like pregnancy. You can't be a little bit pregnant. You either are or you're not. Rafe Esquith excellence pregnancy kids Baseball is a religion in my classroom. It's a very important part of life, baseball. Rafe Esquith classroom important baseball When I have children that go home and mom and dad are not home because they're working, they're trying to get food on the table, and they come home to an empty house and they go to sleep in an empty house, there is no way that child can compete against a child from the west side of Los Angeles who both parents went to Stanford. Well, good for them, God love them. That's not an equal playing field. Rafe Esquith dad mom children There's a difference between logic and what maybe people see when they're presented evidence and justice and that they're not always together. Rafe Esquith differences justice people But to paraphrase Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind, ignorance and mediocrity are forever busy, and the forces of mediocrity aren't content with being mediocre; they'll do everything in their power to prevent even the humblest of teachers and children from accomplishing anything extraordinary. For good work shines a light on the failures of the mediocre, and that is a light which terrifies those who conspire to keep our nation's children, like themselves, ordinary. Rafe Esquith ignorance teacher children You hear terrible stories because there'll be a story about some terrible kid, but most of the kids I work with are terrific kids. They're poor, maybe their families are broken, so they're not coming home to a mom and dad and a nice dinner every night. But these kids are capable. Rafe Esquith dad nice mom This is a bump in the road, i need to counsel you that you need to be careful what you say in front of students. Rafe Esquith top-news That's not our job, our job is to find the people who don't like you. Rafe Esquith top-news This is about nothing. Rafe Esquith top-news
