Today, I got to meet an icon in the world of education. Jaime Escalante came to APSU as part of our celebration for Hispanic Month. He is an immigrant from Bolivia who taught himself English and then changed lives in Los Angeles by teaching math in the most creative and unusual ways. He was the subject of the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, which dramatized his efforts to help underachieving Latino students beat the odds and pass an advanced placement calculus test. I got to eat lunch with him and then attend his presentation. He is the sweetest man I have ever met and I couldn't help but find resemblances between he and my grandfather. (Although, my grandfather was not Latino and didn't teach math!!)
Senior Escalante is defiantly one of those people who makes you want to be a better person/teacher because of the passion he exudes. It almost made me want to use my teaching degree...almost, but not quite! But, his motto is defiantly something we all can remember during our daily lives.
"Determination + Discipline + Hard Work = Way to Success"
1 comments:
I was going to go see that. Our teacher was assigning extra credit if we went, but we decided to get a bite to eat instead.
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