Stand and Deliver

I watched this movie today and I forgot how much it inspires me. As a young teacher I was lucky to teach in many schools where I could connect with many different mentors. Like a young padawan studying at the feet of the master Jedi I absorbed all that I could about classroom organization and discipline which I then incorporated into my own unique style. Stand and Deliver is the true story of one of my teaching heroes - Jaime Escalante. He was a computer engineer who quit to teach math at an inner city school (Garfield High School) in Los Angeles. After awhile he realized that 'students rise to the level of expectation' and that if he could teach them calculus that they would be able to challenge the A.P. (advanced placement) test and receive college credit. He would shoot for the moon to give his students the best opportunities in life which included attending college. This was something few of those barrio kids ever got the chance to do. Gangs, drugs, poverty, and the low expectations of their parents all conspired to keep these students from succeeding. But Jaime knew that with love, understanding, a bit of guilt and a whole lot of 'ganas' (desire) that they could accomplish anything. The real twist to the story comes when his first class to take the A.P. calculus exam are accused of cheating since they had many of the same wrong answers. The truth was that since they had the same teacher teaching them the same program (which he calls 'step by step') from the most basic math to calculus, of course they would have the same wrong answers. I won't give away the ending of the story but if you want to see a movie that sends the good kind of goose bumps throughout your body at the end then you must see 'Stand and Deliver'. Edward James Olmos of Battlestar Galactica fame plays Jaime Escalante and he is amazing. He more than adequately shows the charisma of the real life educator he is playing. Lou Diamond Phillips is a gang banger who can't seem to resist the pull of the gangs and the streets. All the students are excellent and hardly stereotypes. Every year that I teach I show this movie to my students early in the year to remind them that there are no obstacles that they can't overcome with just some 'ganas'. You can see a video of Jaime talking about teaching here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMz8JRg8Y8

"In 1974, Escalante took a job at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, California. He found himself in a challenging situation: teaching math to troubled students in a rundown school known for violence and drugs. While some had dismissed the students as "unteachable," Escalante strove to reach his students and to get them to live up to their potential. He started an advanced mathematics program with a handful of students. In 1982 his largest class of students took and passed an advanced placement test in Calculus. Some of the students' test scores were invalidated by the testing company because it believed that the students had cheated. Escalante protested, saying that the students had been disqualified because they were Hispanic and from a poor school. A few months later many of the students retook the test and passed, proving that they knew the material and that the company was wrong."