Escalante, a teacher with excellent results

A high school mathematics teacher, Jaime Escalante taught both in his native Bolivia and the U.S. as he spent most of his working career as an educator. He enjoyed remarkable success in his chosen vocation, and made a significant difference among his pupils. His efforts at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles were particularly inspiring, as he taught them calculus and had them clear college-level exams, even though they weren’t expected to. His feats there formed the basis of the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, one that catapulted his fame to a larger audience.Childhood and early lifeEscalante was the second eldest of five children born to Zenobio Escalante Rodriguez and Sara Gutierrez Valle, both teachers in a small village in Bolivia. Born in La Paz in 1930, Escalante learnt to read and write from his grandfather, a philosophy professor, and the basics of mathematics from his mother.Try this out: Questions for the questioners – a Teachers’ Day special quizWhen they moved from their rural village to La Paz, seeking better education, Escalante didn’t have the easiest of integrations. This was because he didn’t speak Spanish at the time, the language of instruction. “Little by little, as time went by, I went to the fifth grade of elementary education and I had a very good teacher and I learned the language, which gave me some confidence,” Escalante later recalled.Owing to his inability to sit still and his ability to constantly crack jokes, Escalante wasn’t the most popular of pupils in the classroom. Reports from the school were often bad, barring few teachers who saw he had talent and urged his mother to try bring out his whole potential.Teacher by chanceEven though he was drawn to physics and did his own experimentation at one point, he was aware that his family didn’t have the means to support such a dream. The death of his father meant that he had to find jobs and earn money as quickly as he could. Following his compulsory military service, Escalante made a sudden decision to enter a school where students were taught to enter the teaching profession.While he was unimpressed with their methods, one of the teachers was one who had taught Escalante at primary school. This teacher not only involved Escalante in experiments that he enjoyed, but also found him teaching positions when the country found itself in a political turmoil. Based on these early experiences, Escalante stated that “Early in my career I found that children learn faster when learning is fun, when it is a game and a challenge. From the beginning I cast the teacher in the role of “coach” and students in the role of the “team.” I made sure that my students knew that we were all working together on the same team.” “From the beginning I cast the teacher in the role of “coach” and students in the role of the “team.” I made sure that my students knew that we were all working together on the same team.”Jaime EscalanteHeading to the U.S.Once Escalante was officially qualified to be a teacher, he held as many as three teaching positions at the same time. Following his marriage to Fabiola Tapia in 1954, Escalante was encouraged by his wife to pursue the American dream so that they could have a better life.Even though he was hesitant to start with, he first took part in the U.S. ‘Alliance for Progress’ programme in 1961, when he spent a year in Puerto Rico and also visited many schools in the U.S. Impressed with what he saw – be it the equipment or the facilities that were available for teachers – and backed by his wife’s wish, Escalante travelled to the U.S. in 1963.Becomes a teacher againWith little English and no recognised degree, a teaching job was out of reach. He started as a cleaner in a restaurant, spent time as a cook in a coffee shop, at the same time enrolling himself at classes for a degree in maths and physics.By the time he had this degree, he was at an electronics firm and had risen steadily, so much so that he was offered a supervisor role for a new plant in Mexico. Escalante took the difficult decision of not taking up the more lucrative offer, instead studying to be a teacher again at the California State University, with scholarship. Once he was qualified to teach again, he was about to enter the defining years of his life. A mural of Jaime Escalante (right) and Edward James Olmos (left), who played Escalante in Stand and Deliver, in Los Angeles. | Photo Credit: Cathy Cole / flickr Highs at Garfield HighEscalante started teaching at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles in the autumn term of 1974. Assigned to teach the lowest level mathematics class to an uninterested classroom where all the students weren’t really well behaved, Escalante chose to motivate them. By 1978, Escalante had decided to teach Advanced Placement calculus to his students, a college-level test that offered the “very real rewards of possible college credit and advanced placement in college mathematics courses.”He knew that even if only one student took the test, it was already an improvement. As it happened, five students sat the examination in that first year, with two passing it. The number rose to 15 by 1981, with 14 passing it. And then came the year 1982, when each of his 18 students passed the examination.Stand and DeliverSince we’ve mentioned already that the script of Stand and Deliver was inspired by Escalante’s successful years at Garfield High School, here’s some trivia that revolves around Escalante, the movie, and its cast and crew.Escalante mentioned later in his life that the movie was 90% truth and 10% drama. His main gripe was that the movie “made it seem like I achieved academic excellence overnight, but the process of getting my kids to understand the likes of calculus was a long, tough road.”Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in the movie, prepared for his role meticulously. This included shadowing Escalante for many hours each day and even staying at his home, in order to be better able to portray him on screen.The friendship between Olmos and Escalante went beyond the movie. When Escalante was diagnosed with cancer towards the end of his life, Olmos, other crew members, and former students helped raise funds to pay for his medical bills.What should have been a reason to rejoice quickly turned sour as the Educational Testing Service, the makers of the test, accused many of them of cheating. Escalante and the school cried foul, making their position clear. From their point of view, the Educational Testing Service was being racially biased and their claims of cheating were based on the belief that Mexican-Americans from lower-income groups could not achieve the results that they did. Most of the students chose to retake the examination under conditions that would make cheating impossible, and all of them passed, some of them with excellent scores.A double-edged swordThis series of events led to a 1988 book titled Escalante: The Best Teacher in America that detailed his life and a film, Stand and Deliver, also in 1988, focussing on the 1982 situation. In that same year, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal for Excellence in Education.Escalante’s success, however, turned out to be a double-edged sword. Even as it attracted more students to mathematics at Garfield, the fame and focus on Escalante led to him having run-ins both with fellow teachers and administrators. By the time he resigned Garfield in 1991 – having had enough of the policies being practised and the jealousy of his colleagues – more than 400 students were taking the Advanced Placement examinations.In the years that followed until his death in 2010, Escalante continued to be involved in various ways with teaching and its methods, including a campaign to stop bilingual teaching in schools in California. Following his retirement from teaching in 1998, he was showered with many awards and was soon inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in the U.S.Escalante believed that a good teacher had to be able to see the potential of every student. He certainly did that, right until the end.