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Mar 31, 2010

"What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches." --Karl Menninger

Math Teacher 'Stands and Delivers'

Not many balding, middle-aged Bolivian immigrants have feature-length films produced about them. But then again, not many people have a heart attack, get a gallbladder removed, and spring back to school the next day to teach math. Jaime Escalante, subject of the 1988 film 'Stand and Deliver,' was a passionate teacher, father-figure, and "street-gang equal" who passed away at the age of 79 on Tuesday. A teacher who explained math concepts using wind-up toys and space-alien dolls, and who drilled his students before school, after school, and on Saturdays, Escalante built one of the most successful Advanced Placement programs in the nation, in a low-income high school that had been struggling to keep its accreditation. "If Kimo can do it, we can do it," one student remarks. "If he wants to teach us that bad."