Jaime Escalante was born December 31, 1930 in La Paz, Bolivia, to Zenobio and Sara Escalante. He was the second child born in his family of eight. When Escalante was fourteen his mother sent him to San Calixto High School. Later on in his teenage year’s Escalante’s father died so his family wasn’t able to afford for him to go to San Calixto anymore. At that time, Escalante hoped that he would be able to go to engineering school but because his family couldn’t afford to go to school, he couldn’t. Instead, Escalante worked at odd jobs until he was nineteen. He joined the army for a short period of time. Then a friend of his convinced him to go to college so he could become a school teacher. Before he finished school, Escalante was offered a
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He taught math. Before Escalante arrived at Garfield the students were poorly educated, disrespectful, and sometimes violent. Escalante was unhappy to see this, so he strove to educate them. At first he started with the basics of math such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Escalante believed that students should not be taught at the lowest levels, he thought that the students should be challenged. Then he progressed with a few students and started to teach them algebra. By 1979, he started teaching his first calculus class. Although Escalante had an odd way of teaching these students, unlike other teachers, he was not afraid of yelling at students for being late or lazy. He also gave them encouragement and taught them not to give up on themselves. In attempt to make students pay attention, he wore funny hats and brought different materials to school to teach his students math. He also decorated his class room with inspirational quotes and posters to get his students attention and his attempts worked. He gained the classes respect and the few students that joined the class passed the Advanced Placement (AP) exam. This exam is a very difficult exam that most high school students do not attempt. This inspired Escalante to search for more students to teach. For the students in the class that were struggling, he helped before school and during their lunch period. He also had after school and Saturday
He taught math. Before Escalante arrived at Garfield the students were poorly educated, disrespectful, and sometimes violent. Escalante was unhappy to see this, so he strove to educate them. At first he started with the basics of math such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Escalante believed that students should not be taught at the lowest levels, he thought that the students should be challenged. Then he progressed with a few students and started to teach them algebra. By 1979, he started teaching his first calculus class. Although Escalante had an odd way of teaching these students, unlike other teachers, he was not afraid of yelling at students for being late or lazy. He also gave them encouragement and taught them not to give up on themselves. In attempt to make students pay attention, he wore funny hats and brought different materials to school to teach his students math. He also decorated his class room with inspirational quotes and posters to get his students attention and his attempts worked. He gained the classes respect and the few students that joined the class passed the Advanced Placement (AP) exam. This exam is a very difficult exam that most high school students do not attempt. This inspired Escalante to search for more students to teach. For the students in the class that were struggling, he helped before school and during their lunch period. He also had after school and Saturday