His Story
Scott Charlesworth-Seiler, known to every student as “Mr. C-S,” teaches fifth and sixth grade at the FAIR School (Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Resource School) in Crystal, Minnesota. He has taught in a Texas border school, overseas in Department of Defense schools, in magnet and gifted programs, in a prison setting, and on a sabbatical teaching middle-schoolers in China. He says each one taught him that “in-depth understanding of students was crucial to teaching.”
His classroom starts with the question “Why?” He asks it of his students and invites them to ask it of him, and he urges parents to follow “What did you do at school today?” with “Why did you do that?” Students write across subjects, use video and still cameras, poetry, dance and theater to express what they learn, and interview adults about the curriculum. Every grade he has taught has had a month-long arts residency that ends in a public performance.
At the end of each year he writes every student a letter, half of it copied for all and half written individually. A parent says that reading them “it’s clear that Scott understands both of our boys.” A former student recalls that he “appeared at my graduation party to wish me well on my way to college.”
Beyond the Classroom
Charlesworth-Seiler spent five years on the design team for the FAIR School, a state-funded, voluntarily integrated school serving students from eleven Minneapolis-area districts. He is the only member of that team who chose to teach in the school it created. The school has been cited by the U.S. Department of Education for success in closing racial achievement gaps, and it draws visitors and waiting lists. He founded its National Junior Honor Society chapter and helped start its sixth-grade environmental learning trip.
He holds National Board Certification and a Milken Educator Award, scores National Board candidates, and serves on the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, which makes grants to teachers. He has been a guest instructor at Hamline University, presented on arts magnet schools at a national principals’ conference, and helped lead a sabbatical policy for teachers in his district, becoming its first recipient. Outside school he serves on his city’s human rights commission and has tutored teenagers at the county juvenile detention center.
Philosophy Into Practice
He believes “learning should be an intrinsically joyful act of discovery,” and he works to give students wonder, surprise and anticipation along with high expectations. “We do not truly respect students if we don’t expect their best,” he writes; “we can’t expect their best if we don’t know them.”
He names the racial achievement gap as the great issue facing American schools, and he argues that the public must see education as a relevant path to a better future before it will support reform. Teachers, he says, “must act as professional ambassadors.”
“Knowing students’ histories, special circumstances, developmental levels, motivations, learning styles, and aspirations was essential.”— Scott Charlesworth-Seiler
In His Own Words
“Learning should be an intrinsically joyful act of discovery.”— Scott Charlesworth-Seiler
“We do not truly respect students if we don’t expect their best; we can’t expect their best if we don’t know them.”— Scott Charlesworth-Seiler
“Keeping students accountable starts with keeping myself accountable.”— Scott Charlesworth-Seiler
What Others Said
“This teacher has dedicated his life to not only teaching his students the information they need to advance to the next level, he also shows each student what they can achieve.”— Scott Hood, nominator and former student
“He has the keen ability to assess the academic and emotional needs of students, while retaining the ability to set limits.”— Kevin Bennett, Principal, FAIR School
“Scott is the quintessential teacher.”— Parent of a former student
“Mr. C-S, who instilled a respect for education in me that I still carry with me into college today.”— Former student
“I believe that Scott Charlesworth-Seiler deserves this award and that the Hall of Fame will gain a talented, dedicated, and eloquent spokesperson for the teaching profession.”— Rick Wright, colleague