In 1961 Escalante spent a year in Puerto Rico as part of President John F.
Jaime Escalante Math Program Elac Campus Free Time AndEscalantes unorthodox teaching style motivated hundreds of students to sacrifice their free time and other activities to study for the Advanced Placement math test.
His high success rate led to national acclaim, as well as external funding for his educational programs. His story became the subject of a 1988 Hollywood film titled Stand and Deliver. He was the second child born to Zenobio and Sara Escalante, who both worked as poorly paid schoolteachers. The Escalantes worked in the remote Aymara and Quechua Indian villages, and Escalante grew up in a town on the high plain called Achacachi. The family of seven lived in three rooms rented from a doctor. As a child Escalante amused himself by playing soccer, basketball, and handball. He also spent a considerable amount of time with his grandfather, who was a retired teacher and an amateur philosopher. When Escalante was 14 years old his mother sent him to San Calixto, a prestigious Jesuit high school, where his favorite subjects were math and engineering. Instead, Escalante did odd jobs until he was 19 years old, when he briefly joined the army to fight against leftist rebellions. Early Teaching Experience After only two years at Normal Superior, Escalantes remarkable abilities in physics and mathematics were apparent to his classmates and teachers alike. There was a shortage of physics teachers at the American Institute, and Escalante was offered the job, even though he had not yet been exposed to teacher training classes. At the age of 21, with no books and no experience, Escalante began teaching physics. Jaime Escalante Math Program Elac Campus Trial And ErrorHe learned the skills of teaching by imitating other teachers whom he respected, and through trial and error. Jaime Escalante Math Program Elac Campus Free Spirit AwardAwards: Hispanic Heritage Award, 1988; Free Spirit Award, Freedom Forum, 1998; Andres Bello Prize, Organization of American States, 1998; United States Presidential Medal for Excellence, 1998; National Teachers Hall of Fame, 1999. In the mornings he taught at the prestigious San Calixto, in the afternoons he worked at National Bol var High School, and in the evenings he taught at Commercial High School. It was through a lot of experience that Escalante developed his unique and effective teaching style. In the Bolivian educational system, students were tested by teachers from different schools, eliminating the subjectivity of a teacher testing his or her own students. In this way, Escalante and his students became part of the same team, fighting a common foe, rather than adversaries in a war in which the teacher always had the upper hand and the students often contemplated revolt or desertion, according to Jay Mathews in Escalante: The Best Teacher in America. While at Normal Superior, Escalante met Fabiola Tapia, and the couple married on November 25, 1954. Fabiolas brothers went to college in California and she wanted her young family to join them there. She believed that America offered better economic opportunities and more stability for her family. As a devout Protestant she also did not approve of alcohol, and wanted to get Escalante away from the friends who frequently took him out drinking.
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