Lighting Their Fires: How Parents and Teachers Can Raise Extraordinary Kids in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World

This book is a must read for parents of school aged kids and teachers. it helps you focus on raising kids with true values, discipline and self-satisfaction in a world that has lost these values. I can't say enough good about the book, you MUST read it. it's easy to read and broken into short sections so even if you don't like to read or don't have time, it's an easy book to read just before bed or anywhere you may have a few minutes of time. As a first time parent, i am terified about my child growing up in a value-less, self-involved society. This book helped me learn what to do to help steer my child in the right direction. i'm a bit more confident about raising my son now. thanks Mr. Esquith for taking the time to write this book!

When I first heard Rafe Esquith speaking on the radio, I drove straight to a bookstore and bought his first two books, TEACH LIKE YOUR HAIR'S ON FIRE and THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS. As a former teacher, I can tell you that they are both excellent. When I saw Mr. Esquith had written a new book and, better yet, was coming to Denver, I had to attend. With his students performing Shakespeare (beautifully) and Mr. Esquith providing (superb) comments, I was not disappointed. The evening was phenomenal, and I highly recommend that readers and book lovers of all ages, not just teachers, try to get to one of his signings. I just finished the book yesterday, and it was amazing. He teaches kids time management. (Is this taught anywhere else? It should be.) He teaches them life skills such as getting and staying organized. He gives them a love of learning, so that they do extra reading not just because it's assigned, but because the reading itself brings intrinsic rewards. And most importantly, he teaches them values such as generosity, honesty, and humility. The kids learn these traits and keep them for a lifetime. (Although I am a Rockies fan, I didn't even mind that the book was set at a Dodgers game. Little humor there. Please don't write to me; I am a huge admirer of Joe Torre.) The lessons Mr. Esquith imparts can work for all ages. We can all turn off the television and read more; we can all toss the video games and play a board game; we can all be more generous, honest, and loving, not just when someone is watching. I bought four copies of this book, and plan to buy more. I highly recommend it.

I have met Rafe Esquith twice at book signings in Miami and was amazed both times by the students who accompanied him. In this book, he addresses some essential, but often overlooked, topics related to values. I am a middle school teacher myself and often find myself falling short. When I am feeling low, I have picked up one of Rafe's books on more than one occasion. Still, I can't help but realize that the teaching of values has been crowded out of our curriculums and only the most diligent teachers are reinforcing what is truly important. What impressed me most in this book was Rafe's dignity. The chapters are framed around the nine innings of a Dodgers game that he has taken some of his students to. Twice during the game Rafe is cursed out by grown men in front of his students. On both occasions, he responds with dignity, showing that he truly walks the talk. This is a valuable text for both parents and teachers who want to do right by children in an increasingly value-absent society.

This is a night at the ballgame you don't want to miss. "Lighting Their Fires" is not a prescriptive, I've-got-the-answers book. Instead, it's a precious opportunity to spend some time at a baseball game with five really remarkable young people, as teacher Rafe Esquith was fortunate enough to do last year in Dodgers Stadium. If you don't learn something from these five kids while reading this book, then you are a Scrooge indeed and perhaps in need of a midnight visit from the Ghost of Education Future, pointing a gnarled finger towards quite a few children being "left behind" if we keep going the way we're headed. Rafe Esquith is onto something here. "Lighting Their Fires," like "There Are No Shortcuts" and "Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire" before it, is a gentle but firm wakeup call, reminding us, in a phrase he used often in his previous books, "I think we can do even better." Where we can do better, Esquith says, is in helping our children ("ours" as teachers or as parents) become extraordinary -- not in their brilliance or test scores, though those have their place, but in their ability to develop their own code of conduct and then live it in a way that benefits everyone around them, from family members to classmates to strangers to even, thank goodness, their bearded and vest-and-tie-wearing teacher. What Rafe and his students have discovered over the past 24 years in Room 56 at Hobart Elementary, it seems to me, is a new entryway into the ancient wisdom that great education is all about making us better people, not better test-takers. The energy and commitment level that is unleashed in these kids when they discover the joy of being selfless is a remarkable thing to behold. In some cases it qualifies as heroic, especially in the face of adversity that most of us have never imagined. This is a great book because it tells the truth. Rafe is saying that our culture, the stuff our children absorb countless times each day, is making it harder, not easier, to raise and teach children to become good citizens, good friends, good people. As a parent and teacher, I have to agree. All the folks screaming at elected officials at "town hall" meetings could benefit from a few weeks in Rafe's class. It's a place where the American dream is a practical, living reality, earned with hard work, patience, and thousands of hours of practice. And it's a dream rooted in a fundamental decency and concern for others. I've spent some precious time as a guest in Rafe's classroom, and had the privilege of briefly meeting the five children seen leaping for joy on the cover of "Lighting Their Fires." I watched them and the other Hobart Shakespeareans work math problems, play baseball, read aloud "Huckleberry Finn," and perform Shakespeare and rock and roll and rollicking dance numbers. More impressively, I also remember some of these same students, and others, quickly offering me bottled water every time I entered their classroom. And I marveled