The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: twyacht on March 31, 2010, 06:50:25 PM
-
A true teacher, portrayed in the movie "Stand & Deliver" by Edward James Olmos, passed away.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jaime-escalante31-2010mar31,0,7083760.story
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.
"Jaime didn't just teach math. Like all great teachers, he changed lives," Olmos said earlier this month when he organized an appeal for funds to help pay Escalante's mounting medical bills.
Escalante gained national prominence in the aftermath of a 1982 scandal surrounding 14 of his Garfield High School students who passed the Advanced Placement calculus exam only to be accused later of cheating.
The story of their eventual triumph -- and of Escalante's battle to raise standards at a struggling campus of working-class, largely Mexican American students -- became the subject of the movie, which turned the balding, middle-aged Bolivian immigrant into the most famous teacher in America.
***
Hope more teachers continue in his footsteps.
RIP Mr. Jaime Escalante.
-
Unfortunate. He was an imprerasion to many, not just the Latino community.
Stand and Deliver is still one of my favorite movies, along with Green Berets, Dead Poets Society, and The Right Stuff.
-
RIP Mr. Escalante
-
A good man who had a positive impact on countless young lives. RIP knowing that your work continues to bear fruit.
-
You don't find many teachers like that any more....the man gave definition to what a dedicated teacher should be.
May he rest in peace....and may those he had an impact on carry on his legacy so that his dedication be remembered.