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LELAND ACKER
It seems like every math teacher I had in middle school and high school made me watch the movie, "Stand and Deliver."

"Stand and Deliver" was an inspirational movie about Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, Calif. Mr. Escalante overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles when he taught inner-city, at-risk students calculus. Many of his students would go on to pass AP testing in the subject.

The real life Mr. Escalante overcame many hurdles en route to the moment that would propel him to national prominence. A native of Bolivia, he decided to move to the United States at the age of 33. He prepared for this move by studying physics and mathematics at the University of Puerto Rico. Still unable to fluently speak English when he moved to Pasadena, Calif., he took courses at Pasadena City College, earning a degree in electronics while working a day job. After earning the degree in electronics, he earned a math degree from California State University in Los Angeles.

After that, he went to work teaching mathematics at Garfield High School. That is where we meet him in the movie, "Stand and Deliver." The movie is based on real-life events where Mr. Escalante took disadvantaged minority students from struggling to grasp basic math concepts to being able to perform calculus.

In 1982, 18 of his students took the AP calculus test, with 14 students passing. The Educational Testing Service found these scores to be suspect and asked 14 of those students to retake the test. In the movie, when Mr. Escalante prepared his students to retake the test, he gave them advice.

"Don't wear clothes with 20 pockets, don't give them any reason to call you cheaters," he said. All but two of the students who retook the test passed. There are two lessons learned from the movie, "Stand and Deliver" and the life of Jaime Escalante.

First, give life all you have. Try hard, compete well, go, fight, win! God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7). And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Galatians 6:9).

Secondly, you do yourself a great service when you avoid the appearance of wrong-doing. Do all things without murmerings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:14-15). chreporter@mediactr.com