Stand and Deliver – Passing of Jaime Escalante

Jaime Escalante, the teacher whose amazing story became the movie ‘Stand and Deliver,’ succumbs to cancer at 79.

Being a teacher, no story ever resonated more strongly than that of the inspirational Jaime Escalante.

None.

“Can we talk about sex?”

No doubt my feelings were due in great part to the fact that I too once taught the great subject of calculus. That I too have faced an uninspired group of students desperately wondering how I might reach them.

But my odds were infinitesimal compared to the ones he faced, making his tale an extraordinary story. The passion and ability to inspire some of the most underprivileged students in East L.A. to achieve at a level they could never have imagined possible is and was a story I have never grown tired of.

The movie is a must see for anyone who aspires to teach – heck it ought to be requirement that every high school teacher view the flick a day or two before the start of every school year.

Because this inspirational tale reminds us that it is amazing what one dedicated teacher can do, what a difference one educator can make in the lives of the individuals who arrive in his or her classroom.

As teachers, we all have an amazing opportunity, a chance, every single day, to stand and deliver. And if we do so with unbridled passion, then we can be the ones to truly “pay it forward.”