I wasn't looking for a movie about change. But it showed up and I watched Stand and Deliver. It's based on a true story about a math teacher named Jaime Escalante in an LA school where most of the kids have long ago lost any aspirations for a good job. Because of where and when they were born, the road to a good education is longer and more fraught than for kids born elsewhere.

 

Mr. Escalante somehow transforms the class into a culture of hard work, and mutual support. Rather than settling for basic math he pushes them to learn calculus, and even to prepare for the AP exam. The cultural biases that define their lives make it nearly impossible to come in early, stay late, work on Saturdays, and over Christmas vacation. But these kids have begun to believe in themselves, and they will not let go. 

 

The excruciating part is where their terrific scores are thrown into doubt simply because so many of them did well, and because they are Latino. It is heartbreaking to see their hard work be negated. 

 

So they take the test again. 

 

The fastidious proctors for the test hover over the kids, lest they find a way to cheat again. But for the second time they used their own intelligence to ace the exam. 

 

In the ending credits there are statistics from the next few years, as more and more students from Garfield High School study for and excel, earning college credit as well as self respect. 

 

The movie is from thirty years ago, and yet the story is as life giving now as it was then. I can only imagine how many caring, yet ordinary people there are out there, in classrooms, medical offices, and places of business where change is taking place. 

 

I have met some of them. Probably you have too.