What did edward james olmos have to say about the death of Jaime Escalante?”
Jaime Escalante, the legendary Garfield High School math teacher immortalized in the film “Stand and Deliver,” is battling cancer. The news about Escalante, 79, was posted on the Web page of actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed the educator in the critically acclaimed 1988 movie. Jaime Escalante Olmos said Escalante was in serious condition and that his family had run out of money to pay the medical bills. “The treatment he needs has depleted all the funds his family can raise,” Olmos said in the announcement on his website. The family “did not want to ask for help, but we took it upon ourselves to get the word out to all the country and around the world, to make his final days as comfortable as possible — and maybe even give him a chance to beat the cancer that has afflicted him.” Olmos could not be reached Monday night for comment. Escalante was born in La Paz, Bolivia. His father and mother were both teachers. He arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1960s and later landed the job
Jaime Escalante, the man once called “the best teacher in America,” died at 2:27 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, due to coronary and respiratory failure, precipitated by cancer. He died at his son’s home in Roseville, Calif., surrounded by friends and family. He was 79. Escalante, a much loved teacher, became famous after he was able to take a group of low income, Chicano kids from Garfield High School in East L.A. and taught them calculus. They went on to pass the Advanced Placement Exam, which only three percent of American high school math students even take. The Garfield students, were unfairly accused of cheating but were vindicated when they passed a second test. This story, told in the movie, “Stand and Deliver,” remains as a motivating tool for teachers and students today. Escalante left Garfield in 1991 to teach at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento, California. After teaching there for seven years, Escalante returned to his native Bolivia. When he became seriously ill with cance
Fans of the movie “Stand and Deliver” must have been heartbroken to learn that Jaime Escalante, the math teacher who inspired the 1988 film, died at 79 Tuesday, according to several reports. Escalante’s transformation of the educational curriculum at Garfield inspired the movie “Stand and Deliver,” which featured Edward James Olmos as the heralded math teacher. Olmos earned an Oscar nomination for best actor that year. “Jaime exposed one of the most dangerous myths of our time — that inner city students can’t be expected to perform at the highest levels,” Olmos told the AP.
