The Myth of Room 56, by Rafe Esquith

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I am a very lucky teacher. It's fantastic taking students around the country and meeting so many passionate, caring, and talented people who make a difference in children's lives. It is interesting hearing the questions of both beginning teachers and skilled veterans. My students have noticed a few repeatedly asked questions in every city we visit. One of them happens after an audience has watched the Hobart Shakespeareans, aged ten, perform music and Shakespeare. The inevitable question comes up: are all of your students gifted and talented?

When I explain that there are all kinds of children in Room 56, there is always a teacher or two who doubts that to be true. I wish they could have accompanied me recently when my students and I flew home from Chicago after two weeks on the road. We got up at 4:00 a.m. that morning to catch an early morning flight. I made it back to Room 56 around 11:00 a.m. Los Angeles time. The kids who had not been with me on the trip were studying the Industrial Revolution with Mr. Toliz, a terrific young teacher who has been kind enough to teach my class while I was on tour. The kids were excited about my return, and I took over the lesson.

Once the children began working on some written work, a tall 5^th grader named Felipe quietly came up and asked to speak with me. He told me he had an accident. That morning he had wet his pants and there was a puddle on the floor under his seat. This was a remarkable moment. He had enough trust in me to tell me about a very embarrassing moment, and I excused him to go to the nurse so he could call home and get a change of pants. While the kids were out at lunch, I was on my hands and knees cleaning a fairly large pond of urine off the floor.

As is often the case, the kids at lunch finished in about two minutes and raced back to class. Several of them went to the sink and got sponges and cleansers to assist me. They knew I had on gloves and would not want them to touch Felipe's catastrophe, but wanted to help. They all knew about Felipe's mishap but were kind enough to remain silent. They knew I would be cleaning it when they had left the room. I realized that when you can create trust in a classroom, where kids respect each other during the worst of times, I've been giving the wrong answer. All of my students are gifted and talented.

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