Thomas Ades – Arcadiana: O Albion

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Some sad (though not entirely unexpected) news comes across the wires today: math teacher Jaime Escalante has died.

Escalante was immortalized in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver for teaching at LAUSD’s Garfield High School and inspiring math students to succeed, specifically at the A.P. Calculus exam.

Perhaps ironically, I had not even heard of (let alone seen) the film Stand and Deliver a mere 6 years ago, in the Spring of 2004, when I was first accepted into Teach For America’s 2004 teaching corps in Los Angeles. Some of my fellow corps members actually became teachers at Escalante’s Garfield High School (which he’d retired from in 1998).

So, while being sufficiently disconnected from the icon/legend of Jaime Escalante, his passing is again, a stiff reminder of the power and value of teaching in the lives of kids. No, we’re not going to reach every kid, but the ones we do may be the ones who most surprise us!