We always find it rewarding to read stories, real life stories about people who have had inspirational careers and lives. One such person was Jaime Escalante, a phenomenal teacher from Bolivia who came to this country and succeeded in more ways than one: He enabled students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles to master calculus and to become shining examples of excellence in learning. Mr. Escalante’s life story is incredible impressive and even though it lies in the past (he lives now in Bolivia and enjoys his retirement there at age 78), it bears repeating.
Without reviewing his life in great detail, it is prudent to remind ourselves that there have been giants in many professions, there are but a few who have achieved success in the way Jaime Escalante had. He was born in Bolivia in 1930 and taught physics and mathematics there and he developed the formula for his life-long creed:
Determination + Discipline + Hard Work = Success
In 1963, he immigrated to the United States and it took him about ten years before he attained his teaching credentials while working several other jobs during those years to sustain himself and his family. In 1974, he began teaching at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles where he was dismayed by the lack of preparation in his students considering they were in high school. They barely mastered fifth grade math. The students were not motivated at all. There were gangs and drug problems at this school. But Escalante doggedly continued teaching basics and he was sticking to his principles and over some time, he not only gained the respect of his students, he inspired them. It took about four years before he could teach the first calculus class with only five students, two of which passed the Advanced Placement (A.P.) exam.
The A.P. exam was a test of college-level math skills that was reportedly only taken by three percent of seniors preparing to enter college. Escalante considered these tests to be essential for his students to obtain skills they needed later on to apply for and attaining high-paying jobs. It would force the students to learn analytical and problem-solving techniques they could apply in any profession later on in life.
He was right in that many of his students through all the years continued their educations at such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Berkeley, UCLA and USC and they later on became successful as attorneys, dentists, research engineers, program managers, administrators and attained many other such elevated professional positions.
In 1982, his calculus had grown in size and 18 of his students passed the Advanced Placement calculus exam. The Educational Testing Service in California considered these scores suspect and failed the students accusing them of cheating. After some debate and negotiations, it was agreed that 14 of these students could take the exam again and 12 of them passed the next test. This received attention in the national media and Escalante became known nationwide. A book was written about him and in 1988, it resulted in the movie “Stand and Deliver” featuring the events in 1982. Even though Escalante received many awards such as the Presidential Medal of Excellence in Education presented to him by President Ronald Reagan, he also received several honorary doctoral degrees from a variety of educational institutions.
And of course, like many other successful persons, Escalante had his detractors. There were some administrators at Garfield High who felt that he pushed his students too hard and they did not like his teaching methods. They, the methods he used, were simply too unorthodox for his critics. As a result of these spats, in 1991, Escalante moved to Sacramento and continued to be the excellent teacher he had been and he taught algebra and calculus until 1998 with equal success. Today, Escalante at age 78 is retired and lives in his native Bolivia and taught until recently math at a local university. He still comes to the United States to visit with friends and his son’s family.
With the commonly considered unacceptable low education results in America, we wonder if this country would not be better off with about a million teachers like Jaime Escalante. Their formula would simply be: Determination + Discipline + Hard Work equals and leads to Success!
But this does not seem to match today’s teachers creed of building stronger individuals by stressing ‘Self-Esteem’ development parallel with learning the basics, in essence, the 3R’s are important but it is equally important to built character through self-esteem in these young students. While Escalante pushed his pupils, he also managed to inspire them when they saw the results of their hard work and they excelled. To this day, these students have fond memories of their math/calculus teacher and are very grateful. These individuals are testament that Escalante’s teaching methods were achieving life-long results in them.
We have the utmost respect for individuals like Jaime Escalante who succeeded against all odds at a time when success was not even desired. He is truly an inspirational person and he should be emulated and admired for what he achieved in his profession as a teacher. We encourage you to read up about him if you are interested in how he went about becoming the success he was. Even though he was small in stature, he was a giant in his profession and life.