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Get Up Stand Up and Deliver by Salvador Rojas
Jaime Escalente teaching at Garfield High School
Jaime Escalante: [to his students] ... There will be no free
rides, no excuses. You already have two strikes against you: your name and
your complexion. Because of those two strikes, there are some people in this
world who will assume that you know less than you do. *MATH* is the great
equalizer... When you go for a job, the person giving you that job will not
want to hear your problems; ergo, neither do I. You're going to work harder
here than you've ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you
is *GANAS.* *DESIRE.*
Get Up Stand Up and Deliver by Salvador Rojas
Jaime
Escalante passed away last year on March 30, 2010. He is best known as the
teacher from the hit movie “Stand and Deliver”. The movie was based on his
teaching AP Calculus courses to East Los Angeles students at Garfield High
School. “Stand and Deliver” made him the most famous teacher in the nation;
Escalante’s success made him many enemies who were jealous of his achievements.
Jaime Escalante was born on December 31, 1930 in La Paz, Bolivia and was
raised by his mother. After he graduated high school he served in the army
during a short lived Bolivian rebellion. He then enrolled at Normal Superior, a
Bolivian teachers college. That’s where he met Fabiola Tapia, a fellow student
and his future wife.
With three thousand dollars in his pocket,
Escalante flew to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve 1963. He couldn’t speak any
English and his first job in the States was mopping floors in a coffee shop
across the street from Pasadena City College where he enrolled to learn English.
He moved up to cook and began working on his associate degrees in mathematics
and physics at night. This led to him being hired as a technician for the UNISYS
Corporation. He earned a scholarship and continued his education at Cal State
University of Los Angeles, and received his teaching credentials.
In
1974 he left his high paying job to teach at Garfield High School with a
starting salary of $13,000.
In the sixties Garfield was one of the East
Los Angeles-based high schools along with Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt where
Chicano/as held the “Brown Outs”. The “Brown Outs” were in response to the
inferior education they felt they were receiving compared to affluent high
schools.
Not much had changed at Garfield when Escalante arrived in 1974. He was
assigned to teach the lowest level of math. He was dissatisfied with the
watered-down math text books and the hard to teach students. He wished for his
old job back.
Escalante didn’t give up! Instead he started his
reputation for motivating some of the toughest students. By 1978, he had 14
students in AP Calculus with two students passing the AP exam. In 1980, seven of
nine students passed the AP exam; 1981, 14 of 15 passed. In 1982, he had 18
students in his AP Calculus class. “Stand and Deliver” is based on Escalante’s
1982 class.
Actor: Edward James Olmos and Teacher: Jaime Escalente Mural (Location:
Downtown Los Angeles | Photo: Salvador
Rojas)
The movie was released in March 1988 and the role of
Jaime Escalante was played by Edward James Olmos. Olmos became the first
American-born Latino to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for
his portrayal of Jaime Escalante.
In Loving Memory of Jaime Alfonso
Escalante Gutierrez (December 31, 1930 — March 30, 2010)
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