Former Garfield High teacher Jaime Escalante has cancer and his family has depleted their available funds. This is what the L.A. Times story Monday reported. If that name does not ring a bell for you, you might recognize the title of the 1988 movie, "Stand and Deliver," starring James Edward Olmos as the teacher of the calculus class at Garfield, Jaime Escalante. The news of the condition of Jaime Escalante was shared by James Edward Olmos on his web site.
There are several websites that reflect the circumstances in their own way. The L.A. Times brings us the news, in the "L.A. Now" news blog
"Legendary East L.A. teacher Jaime Escalante battles cancer." March 1, 2010 7:50 pm, by Robert J. Lopez http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/jaime-escalante-cancer.html
One of the things that Escalante was able to show was that good teaching methods can allow students to learn and apply what they learned to demonstrate proficency when many before had no real expectations for achievement. That "lowering of the bar" is a reaction that still goes on now to settle for mediocrity where a much higher capacity for learning by students lies untapped.
Escalante was able to see his students learn and excel as the movie portrays very clearly. From what I gather from the stories, at 79 years old, and from what experience I have accumulated over the years with cancer, his comfort is one goal and continued treatements may be effective depending on the advancement stage of the cancer.
I think that Escalante has really been an under-appreciated individual and I don't know why there was not much that LAUSD appeared to gain institutionally from Escalante's teaching to be able to duplicate his successes in a district wide setting. This is something that I see as an LAUSD weakness. When they see that something is working in any area of academics or skill, there is no real ability to capture what makes that happen. There is no real ability that is described in other industry actions as "reverse-engineering" done on any specific level that I have seen or heard about, but instead, it's more experiments as a favored approach to solutions. The experiments are selected by the school board and that sends more money down the pipeline to pay for consultants and vendors used with new programs without any assurances of success.
Jaime Escalante was a contemporary teaching star, with story that was so different, actually it was incredible, that it was made into a movie. This was a success that I believe made Escalante the most famous teacher in the district. I think every one of my students, mostly 9th and 10th graders, in my few years of teaching had seen that movie somewhere earlier in their school careers and knew the story well. The real successes in teaching students don't seem to be spreading anywhere and maybe it is something that needs more attention instead of always going for new theories, something akin to grasping at straws by the District, as if that's the only choice.
On another blog, "The Democratic Underground," http://www.democraticunderground.com/ , it take the reported news from "Source: USAToday" for a Mar 02, 2010 story, "Cast raises money for real 'Stand and Deliver' math teacher's fight with cancer." http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7826671
At another local blog, "Losanjealous.com" http://www.losanjealous.com
they carry the story as "Friends of Jaime”–Jaime Escalante Cancer Fight Donation Fund," by Losanjealous - Tuesday March 02nd 2010 http://www.losanjealous.com/2010/03/02/friends-of-jaime-jaime-escalante-cancer-fight-donation-fund with a letter by James Edward Olmos reproduced that asks for help in a very passionate reflection of Escalante's impact on students and on ideas of education.
There is a .PDF form: http://www.edwardjamesolmos.com/PDF/JAIME-ESCALANTE-DONATION.pdf for making contributions by credit card to the main fund site in Pasadena obtained from the home page of James Edward Olmos.
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