| | It tells the true story of Jaime Escalante, who in 1982 led a class of 18 poor Hispanic students in Los Angeles from former struggles with basic mathematics to solid passing scores on the Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus examination. Edward James Olmos delivers an outstanding performance as the driven Escalante while Lou Diamond Phillips perfectly embodies the gangster punk taken onto a higher path through Escalante's vision of the possible. Learn more at
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094027/
I saw this movie on cable back in 1989. My recent article on NCSSM resurrected my memories of AP Calculus so I decided to rent it and watch it again this weekend. Reader's Digest also published an article about Escalante back in the late 1980s. Basically, in a school filled with teachers who have given up on the potential of these young people, Escalante knew how to relate to them and helped them to light their own fires of internal motivation.
Read more about the real man here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Escalante
I highly recommend this movie but read the Wikipedia article to distinguish the hard facts from the drama's small artistic deviations.
Wikipedia has several useful links including this Reason article about Escalante and the "untold story" behind the Hollywood mythology:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28479.html
(Edited by Luke Setzer on 9/17, 5:24am)
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You are the true dreamers, and dreams accomplish wonderful things.
