Stand and Deliver movie notes

Based on true story. Movie starts off by showing different parts of L.A. w/ minorities. Jaime Escalante, teacher that is suppose to teach computers, teaching math 1A instead at Garfield High School. He had some students who were mainly Hispanic and did not speak English. Car broken into and radio stolen after he was done at school, new teacher= target.  He wants to teach high school. Began his class in a creative way. Rebellious students in his class. He interacts with his class and tries to involves his students. Illiterate students in class. Student (guy with hair net)  wants books to learn but is embarrassed to carry books around so his homies don’t make fun of him. Student who does not do homework sits in ‘the chair’ in front of class. The girl takes care of her siblings while her dad goes to work. Quiet girl works at restaurant for her father, does not want daughter to get education in fear of her getting pregnant and not finishing college. Wants her to be part of the family business. Uses examples that are humorous and where students may understand. Takes students on a field trip=math in the real world. Wants to teach calculus next semester. Wants to better school reputation and want students to earn college credit. The lady in charge of school does not want to shatter what little confidence students already have. Now teaching calculus, wants students to come in on weekends and stay a couple hours after school so they can pass AP exam. Claudia doesn’t appreciate him using her personal life “to entertain the class” LOL, she is crying because she can’t comb her hair and her mom and bf are mad at her and wondering where she is. The guy in the hair net’s grandma is sick, always coughing and he brings her to hospital. One of the students gets angry because he can’t do calculus and thinks he won’t pass the AP exam. Guy in hair net brings his grandma to Mr. Escalantes house for Xmas. Got “mad” that all his students agreed on an answer. Getting sick while teaching his class; mild heart attack. Substitute teacher for Mr. Escalantes has never taught calculus. All the students are happy that he has returned. Students received letters that they all copied each other because they all got the same wrong answers (cheaters). Accusing students of cheating when they worked hard for it. Mr. Escalante’s car is gone, had to walk home. Thinks it was a mistake teaching them calculus. “They learned that even if they try really hard, nothing changes.” Students got him a new car. Mr. Escalante wants to see the tests, no proof of wrongdoing only suspicion of test. “They should be rewarded not punished." Making an accusation of the students cheating just because they are minorities. Retaking the test. Want the principal to go over test to ensure there are no misunderstandings. Going over how much they missed on the AP exam. Increasing numbers of students passing the AP exam since 1982 at Garfield H.S.

In what ways was Mr. Escalante a good teacher and what ways was he a bad teacher?
Mr. Escalante was a good teacher where he included his students in activities and made it so the class was fun. He used humor to engage his students in learning, for example when he wrote a problem on the board about how many girlfriends Carlos had. He did a great job in including all his students and wanted them to succeed and had them stay a couple hours after school and on weekends to ensure that they would pass the AP exam. I think he was passionate, patient, and understanding of his students. I think the only thing that made him a bad teacher was that he didn't listen and overworked himself to the point where he had a mild heart attack. I think he focused his attention on his students and fought for them when others thought they had cheated on the AP exam. I think that was very brave of him and I think it was noble that the students wanted to take the AP exam again just so they can prove that they did work hard to get where they were. Even though some of Mr. Escalante's students were illiterate, he did not discriminate against them and wanted to work with and help the students as equals. He gave them all a chance and wanted all of them to work hard. I think he wanted to avoid the image of the stereotypical illiterate, poor, minority students who don't do well in school.