Stand and Deliver

The first day Mr. Escalante uses Spanish to direct the students and places non-English speaking students at the front to give them a better chance of learning the material. He also uses lots of visual examples, like cutting up apples to show fractions and a sand metaphor to explain negative numbers. This made the material more accessible. He pushed students to learn whether they wanted to or not. A student was giving Mr. Escalante a rude gesture, but he was not bothered by this and kept pushing the students. Escalante expected a lot out of his students. He made the take test often, come on weekends and stay after class. For example, he wanted to teach them calculus, even though the other teachers did not think the students could handle it. Mr. Escalante stated that the students will rise to the level of expectations. He continuously advocated for student’s educations. One student’s father wanted to take her out of school so she could work at their family restaurant and Escalante went to the restaurant to convince the father to keep the student in school. All of these are examples of positive teaching methods. However, he could sometimes be inconsiderate by making somewhat inappropriate jokes and not listening to a student’s excuse for coming in late. These were intended to push the students and allow them to reach their potential, not simply to humiliate. Although Escalante was sometimes a little harsh, his methods were extremely effective.