Episode 7: Stand and Deliver

It’s our first episode of the 2021-22 season.  We’re talking about Stand and Deliver, the true story of high school teacher Jaime Escalante who finds himself teaching math in East LA. He finds a group of students who find his less-than conventional teaching methods to be inspiring and he takes them all the was to AP Calculus. When they all successfully pass the AP Exam, their scores are challenged because of their ethnic surnames and they are forced to retake the exam with only one day to prepare.  No spoiler here. but they did make a movie about it, so . . .  The Real Life Escalante once said that this movie was “90% truth and 10% drama.”  Both Edward James Olmos (Escalante) and Lou Diamond Phillips (Angel Guzman) received Academy Award Nominations for their performances.

In this episode we talk about systemic racism, the dubious value of AP Courses, “Cholo” Culture, inner city schools, and the questionable role of “teacher as hero.”