Stand and Deliver Teacher Jaime Escalante Dies 389
DesScorp writes "Jaime Escalante, the math teacher portrayed in the hit '80s movie Stand and Deliver, has died of cancer at age 79. Escalante is legendary for creating the advanced math 'pipeline' program at Garfield High in East Los Angeles in the '70s and '80s, an area populated mostly by poorer Hispanic families. Escalante's students eventually outpaced even richer schools in advanced placement tests for calculus. Escalante refused to accept excuses from his students or community about why they couldn't succeed, and demanded a standard of excellence from them, defying the notion that poor Hispanic kids just weren't capable of advanced work. While Escalante became a celebrity because of the hit movie about his efforts, jealousy from other teachers ... as well as red tape from teacher's unions and the public school bureaucracy, resulted in Escalante and his hand-picked teachers leaving Garfield. Since his departure, Garfield has never replicated Escalante's success with math students, and Reason Magazine reported on the shameful way in which others tore down what Escalante and his teachers worked so hard to build."
Re:Truly (Score:4, Funny)
Juana tell us more about her and her experiences in Escalante's class?
Yeah haters, this *is* News for Nerds (Score:2, Funny)
Jesse Jackson was wrong (Score:2, Funny)
East Los Angeles, not New York, was the real Jaime-town.
Re:Truly (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Truly (Score:3, Funny)
That doesn't speak highly of your intelligence.
Re:Truly (Score:2, Funny)
I think Carlos Mencias pointed this out before. If you are hispanic and live in L.A. you are Mexican.
Re:Truly (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Truly (Score:4, Funny)
Bunch of savages.
Re:Truly (Score:4, Funny)
it hints perhaps that the drive to try is far more important than natural ability.
Disagree with you Yoda does.