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Today, a great teacher passed away, his name Jaime Escalante.
To the many readers of Bitmob.com, Edward James Olmos is a cultural icon for his role as Commander William Adama in the popular remake of Battlestar Galatica. Yet Olmos was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of East Los Angeles Garfield High School teacher Jaime Escalante in the 1988 movie, Stand and Deliver.
The Bolivian born teacher not only believed but proved that students from all walks of life can be successful in taking the demanding course work of Advanace Placement courses offered in Californian and American High Schools.
Stand and Deliver DVD Cover
In an area dominated by working class and poor Mexican Americans, Jaime Escalante's AP Calculus program became one of the largest of the nation and a model for other American High Schools. He basically proved Mexican Americans and minorities, with the proper and teaching and tools can excel in demanding courses.
It was common belief, a rather misconception, that Latinos and Minorities do poorly in Math and Science. With a heavy dose of ganas (loosely translated as an urge) – Jaime proved them all wrong – Latino students can excel in AP Calculus and other difficult course studies.
So why a Jaime Escalante post for a video game community website?
In the latest wave of video game conventions, from DICE to GDC, there have been talks on the need to cut the under-representation of minorities in games and in the workforce especially the developers who make the said expositions. One requisete of being a video game developer and/or computer designer is the strong knowledge of math and problem solving skills.
Jaime Escalante through the movie, taught Latino kids, like myself, that with ganas one can exceed and accomplish any of our set goals. One way to curb the under-representation of minorities in video games is to help minority children into the fields of math and science. I may not have been one of his students, but through the movie and my inspired father I succeeded and so many other children can too.