"Stand and Deliver" teacher honored by local educators

[tonysam]

This is about Jaime Escalante, who is being treated for bladder cancer in Reno:

For her belief in empowerment, Knecht was nominated for an Exceptional Educator award and was honored Tuesday at a Sierra Nevada Journeys event that recognized outstanding contributions of teachers locally. The event also honored former inner-city Los Angeles teacher Jaime Escalante, the educator on whom the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver” is based.

...

“It’s so well summed up by Jaime Escalante and his commitment to his kids,” Sierra Nevada Journeys executive director Jonathan Mueller said. “It goes back to the idea of him specifically believing in his kids, especially in an environment and culture where we have a lot of Title I schools we work with where more than 80 percent of students are in the free and reduced lunch program. They haven’t been exposed to why and how learning is so important. … We recognize there’s a real power and an opportunity to help students.”

Tuesday’s event was inspired by Escalante’s current medical condition. The 79-year-old teacher is being treated in Reno for cancer of the bladder. According to various news reports, he’s been given just several weeks or several months to live. Family funds to cover the costs of treatment have been depleted. While some of the actors who appeared in “Stand and Deliver,” including Edward James Olmos who portrayed the teacher, have managed to raise about $5,000, Escalante will need about $25,000 more, actress Vanessa Marquez said in an article posted on www.ktla.com, a Southern California TV station.

Escalante is most well-known for teaching math at Garfield High School in a poor area of Los Angeles. Hired in 1974, he was committed to teaching basic algebra and started his first calculus class five years later. As the calculus class size increased, he began preparing and motivating his students to take Advanced Placement calculus. Five students took the class and two passed the exam. By 1981, the class grew to 15 students with 14 passing the test. The class multiplied with great success and Escalante’s AP class had more students enrolled in all but three public high schools in the country.

But by the early 1990s, Escalante left Garfield and took a job in Sacramento, attributing his departure to jealousies among faculty members.

Sparks Tribune

The "untold" story about him is in this piece on the NAPTA site.

[Tansy_Gold]

1. the purity of mathematics

There is no bigotry in math. The numbers know no color, no race, no creed, no language.

Maybe if we could universalize the teaching of mathematics, from pre-school counting rhymes through advanced calculus, we could reach a point where learning ability is accepted, biases are reduced or eliminated, and all can learn with equal opportunity.


Tansy Gold, who never liked math but never forgot what she learned

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Best teaching movie ever

I could watch it over and over. So sorry to hear he is sick.

[Ignoblesolid]

3. Too bad...

Too bad the majority of teachers don't seem to possess the same passion and pedagogical methods that Mr. Escalante did, which was to present his subject of interests(i.e. math) to a student demographic that was labeled 'unlearnable'by the majority of their school teachers and administrators. He brought the AP calculus program to a school that was one of the most poor performing school in the southern California area and over 400 students took and passed all of the AP calculus exams, too bad his was driven by teachers unions and the newly established administration at Garfield high school . (http://www.andrewklavan.com/2010/04/05/the-sequel-that-will-never-be-made-2/)

[YvonneCa]

4. Thought tonysam was back...

... :7 Welcome to DU.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Enjoy your stay!

:hi: