Following up on last Saturday's La Bloga post, comes this from the Los Angeles Times, Wed., 3/31/10:
OBITUARY by Elaine Woo
"Jaime Escalante, the charismatic former East Los Angeles high school teacher who taught the nation that inner-city students could master subjects as demanding as calculus, died Tuesday. He was 79.
"The subject of the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, Escalante died at his son's home in Roseville, Calif., said actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed the teacher in the film. Escalante had bladder cancer."
To read the entire L.A. Times article, go here.
You can leave a testimonial or message for the family here.
A Memorial is scheduled for Sat. April 17th. Time and location TBD. Info should be available soon here.
To hear a very well-done audio biography of Escalante from NPR's All Things Considered, go here and click on the Olmos/Escalante photo.
For those interested in Escalante's major article on his teaching philosophy and methodology, go here.
As described in last week's post, there are at least three books you can check on Jaime Escalante and his students' achievements. No matter which button you click, video you watch or how you learn more, if you are ever lacking some inspiration--and I don't mean only about teaching--hearing, reading or thinking about his work will serve you well. Especially if a little ganas would make all the difference.
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By: Rudy Garcia,
on 4/2/2010
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Momotombo, PALABRA magazine, Jaime Escalante, One Poem Festival, poetry, obituary, Add a tag
By: Rudy Garcia,
on 3/27/2010
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Edward James Olmos, calculus, Jaime Escalante, Stand and Deliver, Add a tag
In 1982 a Bolivian immigrant named Jaime Escalante made national news because 18 of his high school students passed the Advanced Placement exam in calculus. Actually, the sensational news was that they were all inner-city L.A. Chicano kids. The corporate testers, Educational Testing Service, threw out their scores, since it's common knowledge, even to this day, that poor brown kids can't do, or in this case, outdo what preppy, rich Anglo kids do, at least academically.
If you never heard about this, then you've never seen the film Stand and Deliver, starring Ed Olmos as Escalante. You can remedy this gap in your education by at least watching the movie, directed by Ramón Menéndez. Briefly though, here's what rolls past before the credits at the end:
- Twelve of those students that year retook the exam and their original scores were reinstated.
- In 1983, 30 students passed the Advanced Placement test.
- In 1987: 73 passed.
Escalante: The Best Teacher in America by Jay Mathews (Owl Book - 1989)Jaime Escalante: Sensational Teacher by Ann Byers (Library Binding - 1996)
Of course, every teacher should know about Escalante, and especially about ganas, which is so often heard in the movie. Ganas de aprender translates as being willing to learn, have the yearning to succeed. What's obvious in the film though is more; it's the eagerness, the thirst, the passion for knowledge, and that must have been more like what happened in Esclante's classroom.
Thank you--even "little" points like his reminder to bring humor to the classroom is so helpful to me.
What a wise man! Peter