Jaime Escalante
| Jaime Escalante | |
|---|---|
Jaime Escalante
|
|
| Born |
December 31, 1930 La Paz, Bolivia |
| Died | March 30, 2010 (aged 79) Roseville, California, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | Fabiola Tapia |
Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez (December 31, 1930 – March 30, 2010) was a Bolivian educator known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School, East Los Angeles, California. Escalante was the subject of the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, in which he is portrayed by Edward James Olmos.
In 1993, the asteroid 5095 Escalante was named after him.
Escalante was born to two teachers of Aymara ancestry on December 31, 1930 in La Paz, Bolivia. He was proud of his Aymara heritage and as an adult would proudly proclaim "The Aymara knew math before the Greeks and Egyptians".
Escalante taught mathematics and physics for 12 years in Bolivia before immigrating to the United States. After migrating, "he had to work many odd jobs, teach himself English and earn another college degree before he could return to the classroom." In 1974, he began teaching at Garfield High School. Escalante eventually changed his mind about returning to work when he found 12 students willing to take an algebra class.
Shortly after Escalante came to Garfield High, its accreditation became threatened. Instead of gearing classes to poorly performing students, Escalante offered AP Calculus. He had already earned the criticism of an administrator who disapproved of his requiring the students to answer a homework question before being allowed into the classroom. "He told me to just get them inside," Escalante reported, "but I said, there is no teaching, no learning going on".
Determined to change the status quo, Escalante had to persuade the first few students who would listen to him that they could control their futures with the right education. He promised them that the jobs would be in engineering, electronics, and computers but they would have to learn math in order to obtain these jobs. He told his students: "I'll teach you math and that's your language. With that, you're going to make it. You're going to college and sit in the first row, not the back because you're going to know more than anybody".
...
Wikipedia