Escalante was hired to teach computer science. However, upon arriving at the school he was informed that there were no computers. Due to lack of funding the computers were unable to be purchased during the previous academic year. Rather than having this be an obstacle he began teaching his students math. Having high expectations for his students and identifying the preexisting bias they faced, he chose to continue teaching them calculus the following year. These minority students faced societal inequity as other teachers, Mrs. Ortega, in particular has low expectations from the students, stating “we can’t teach algorithms to illiterates” (Menendez, 1988). As depicted within the movie, students derived from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Ana’s father demanded that she quit school in order to waitress and help support the family’s business. Pancho is tempted to quit school as well so that he could earn time and a half working with a family member. Lupe helps her father get ready for work and puts her siblings to bed before she is able to begin homework (“Hidden,” …show more content…
Escalante instructs the filled classroom to sit at a desk or against the wall. Swiftly, he establishes English language learners from English speaking learners and assigns them first row seats. Also, students demonstrating inappropriate behavior were spoken to in private to ascertain the cause for the misconduct. In addition, Mr. Escalante utilized classroom aids such as apples, a knife, and a hot dog vendor hat to promote differentiated instruction (“Teacher,” 2016). Anyhow, within a quarter of the way through the movie the students are divided into two groups. Students are challenged to pick a side of whether they are willing to work hard toward academic success or not. During the lesson, students were asked what they had after one apple was sliced half. The responses Mr. Escalante received varied but included two halves or fifty percent (Robb, 2016). Nonetheless, the students quickly understood and were able to visualize the