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Stand and Deliver Teacher Jaime Escalante Dies

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."

9 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Truly by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Juana tell us more about her and her experiences in Escalante's class?

  2. Yeah haters, this *is* News for Nerds by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    He was played in a movie by the guy from Blade Runner *and* Battlestar Galactica.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  3. Jesse Jackson was wrong by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

    East Los Angeles, not New York, was the real Jaime-town.

  4. Re:Truly by bunratty · · Score: 3, Funny

    What I want to know is if she is merry!

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  5. Re:Truly by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2, Funny

    So fucking what. One's full of wetbacks and the other is full of spics. I'M NOT SEEING A MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE HERE.

    That doesn't speak highly of your intelligence.

  6. Re:Truly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think Carlos Mencias pointed this out before. If you are hispanic and live in L.A. you are Mexican.

  7. Re:Truly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someone else probably said that first.

  8. Re:Truly by yurtinus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seriously raises questions - this one time I wrote a loop and used i as the iterator. Later on I was working on a program from one of the other guys and found out that son of a bitch STOLE my code and used the SAME DAMN ITERATOR NAME.

    Bunch of savages.

    --
    +1 Disagree
  9. Re:Truly by Dachannien · · Score: 3, Funny

    it hints perhaps that the drive to try is far more important than natural ability.

    Disagree with you Yoda does.