After all that Kimo has done for us, it's the least we can do."īack at Garfield, more people stream onto the school's lawn to sign a big banner that will be sent to Escalante. But what we want is to die in comfort and dignity, with our loved ones around us. "Even if you weren't his student, he would always ask you, 'How're you doing in trig? What’s happening with your grades?'" Arredondo says.Īctor Edward James Olmos, who received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Escalante in the 1988 hit movie Stand and Deliver, is spearheading an effort to support Escalante and his family in what looks to be the teacher's final days. "Not only did he come, he came with a suitcase full of tamales made in East L.A." A thoughtful taste of home for students who hadn't been there in a while.ĭolores Arredondo (left) and Alicia Barrera look over their 1991 yearbook from Garfield High School. Escalante to speak, and he did," Arredondo says. ![]() It was a home-style Thanksgiving for those who couldn't afford to fly home. She said that one year, Escalante appeared at the Pachanga celebration for Latino students that the Ivy League and Seven Sisters colleges held on the East Coast. Lerma reels off a partial list of where she and other Escalante students from the class of 1991 went: Occidental, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, MIT, Wellesley.ĭolores Arredondo, who is now a bank vice president went to Wellesley. And he showed them that the best colleges in the country were not beyond their reach. He would teach anybody who wanted to learn - they didn't have to be designated gifted and talented by the school.Įscalante, whose students mischievously nicknamed him "Kimo" (a play on The Lone Ranger's Kemosabe moniker), would not only work with his students until they were all ready to drop from exhaustion, he employed them in the summers as tutors. Garfield educates some of Los Angeles' poorest students, many of them from immigrant families, and many of whom never conceived of college as a possibility. To the astonishment of the outside world, Escalante taught many of these returning graduates math - advanced math, like trigonometry and calculus. The medical costs have depleted Escalante's savings, and the students are determined to help out. But the weather didn't dampen the enthusiasm of many Garfield graduates, who came from all over Los Angeles and beyond to show their support for their former teacher, Jaime Escalante.Įscalante's former students recently learned he is in the end stages of bladder cancer that has spread throughout his body. The lawn in front of Garfield High School in East Los Angeles was sodden from the morning's rain. Many of Escalante's former students are raising money to help pay for their teacher's medical costs as he battles bladder cancer. First-time director Ramon Menendez, a Cuban UCLA graduate, gives the charismatic Olmos a showcase.Jaime Escalante is seen here teaching math at Garfield High School in Los Angeles in March 1988. Carefully scripted and well acted, STAND AND DELIVER is sentimental and utterly predictable but better than many films of this kind. With his school facing a loss of accreditation, Escalante makes a radical request-to prepare his students for the Advanced Placement exams inĬalculus. Violently slices up apples to illustrate the concept of fractions), and refers to his class as a "show." Gradually the students respond to his style. DEAD POET'S SOCIETY), so he wear costumes, engages in amateur theatrics (he dresses as a chef and Escalante, however, is no ordinary high school teacher-he's a Movie Teacher (cf. Learn-they come late to class, can't do multiplication, talk and eat in class, and live in fear of gang violence. Escalante's class is filled with kids who have no desire to ![]() Based on a true story, the movie stars Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at East LA's Garfield High. Another one of those teachers who uses entertainment to save young souls, this time in East Los Angeles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |