Our take
Education isn’t always a guarantee, especially in less privileged areas that are underfunded, overlooked, and underprioritized, in the belief that these kids wouldn’t amount to much in the end. That being said, sometimes, what changes that fate is having a teacher that believed in his students and encouraged them to learn more than what they were expected. Stand and Deliver is a dramatization of the real life Jaime Escalante, who transformed a math program in an east LA high school to the point where his entire class ace California’s calculus test. The film definitely takes some dramatic liberties, but it does capture a sense of his quiet determination, the personality that pushed him to believe in and connect with students differently. While Escalante’s program eventually ended due to admin changes and staff in-fighting, Stand and Deliver is a reminder of the importance of nurturing ganas, or desire, in the classroom.
Streaming arrival
What it won
Oscars
1 nom
Golden Globes
2 noms
Spirit Awards
6 wins · 1 nom
Sundance
1 nom
The story
Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.
Los Angeles, early 1980s. While the school administration, parents, and even the students themselves don’t believe that anyone would succeed coming from the underfunded James A. Garfield High School, high school teacher Jaime Escalante hopes to successfully teach higher math, surprising the entire nation when his entire class passes AP calculus.
We’ve seen great films about teaching, like Dead Poets Society, Coach Carter, and School of Rock, but Stand and Deliver is based on a real person. It was probably made to inspire the rest of America’s education system, but the film does focus a lot on Escalante’s personality that it seems like it suggests that results like this can only happen due to it. To a certain extent, it’s true– his out-of-the-box thinking allowed him to conceive of possibilities for his students– but the film hasn’t identified what has allowed him to create said program, the conditions that allowed the program to happen. And frankly, identifying these factors is important for the current American education system, especially with the math and reading scores hitting an all-time low in decades.
Shout out to all the teachers that are still in the business. You deserve so much better, with a government that prioritizes education, and an administration that supports your efforts.
The details
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
