Stand And Deliver

Another one of those teachers who uses entertainment to save young souls, this time in East Los Angeles. Based on a true story, the movie stars Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at East LA's Garfield High. Escalante's class is filled with kids who have no desire to learn--they come late to class, can't do multiplication, talk and eat in class, and live in fear of gang violence. Escalante, however, is no ordinary high school teacher--he's a Movie Teacher (cf. DEAD POET'S SOCIETY), so he wear costumes, engages in amateur theatrics (he dresses as a chef and violently slices up apples to illustrate the concept of fractions), and refers to his class ...