Stand and Deliver –
Movie Notes
Mr. Escalante is a new teacher in Los Angeles. He was sent
there to teach computers but ended up teaching math because of funding issues
at the school. The population of the school is mostly Hispanic. Some students can’t
even speak English. Most of them have a 7th grade academic skill
level. When he meets the school ‘bad ass’
he’s not intimidated as the student would have hoped. Instead he makes jokes
with the student, not giving him the attention he’s looking for. On the 2nd
day of school, the student has 4 other kids (not supposed to be in that class)
sit with him. It is clear that he is a part of a gang. In an attempt to revolt,
4 students decide to refuse to take the test. Their plan back fires when only 1
student actually follows through. Mr. Escalante goes out to eat with his wife
and his waitress ends up being one of the smarter students in his class. Her
family owns the restaurant and the teacher strikes up a conversation with the student’s
father. Mr. Escalante tells the man
about his daughters’ dream of going to medical school. The man is upset by this
and yells at him, telling him that his daughter will not go to college. She
will help at the family business. Mr. Escalante tells the teachers board that
he wants to teach calculus next year. This also ends in a minor conflict when
one teacher is upset saying that he will diminish any self confidence they
have, if any.
It’s a new school
year and he is teaching calculus. He
expects students to come an hour before school starts, stay for a 2 hour class
not miss any days of school in order to receive college credit for the math
class. Students are not progressing as quickly as they should so they must stay
after school as well. One female student decides to leave and not stay. Mr.
Escalante follows her into the hall and after talking with her he realizes she
has a lot going on in her personal life. One student was late for class because
he had to take his grandma to the doctor’s office. When he showed up late, the teacher
would not accept his excuse for being late and kicked him out of class. The student
responded by shoving a desk over and causing a scene. Mr. Escalante is in the middle of teaching a
class when he excuses himself and has what appears to be a heart attack. He is
overworking himself. He is told to take
it very easy for the next month. After 2 days he sneaks out of the hospital and
comes back to his calculus class. The day of the big test comes and the
students are confident. After the test they celebrate as a class by swimming in
the ocean. The principal announces that their school has the highest number of
kids in the country to pass the calculus advanced test. There is a ceremony to
celebrate and the students present their teacher with a plaque. The class gets a letter saying that their
scores are invalid because the students got a lot of the same answers wrong. They
are being called cheaters and an investigation is launched. Angel is upset and acting out so he tries to
start problems with a police officer. He and his friend get pulled over and receive
a warning. His friend is upset and hits him so Angel walks home. Two representatives
from the board are sitting with the class trying to make them cop to cheating.
Angel takes the blame… as a joke. The men eventually leave still believing the
class cheated. Later that day, Mr. Escalante is walking to the teacher parking
lot to find that his car has been stolen.
He begins to doubt himself saying “All they learned is that when they
try their hardest nothing changes.” He’s
at home with his wife when he hears kids yelling and a car honking. He comes
outside and it’s his student. They had taken his car and fixed it up for
him. Mr. Escalante drives a long way to
talk to the men doing the investigation. They refuse to discuss the case with
him. The 3 men get into a heated argument and finally Mr. Escalante leaves
after threatening them both. All of the students decide to take the test again
to prove they earned their scores. They are only given one day to review
everything and study. Mr. Escalante predicts the test will be much harder this
time around because the testing board is also trying to prove a point. After
the test, Mr. Esclante is patiently waiting for the results and the board
insists on recounting 4 times. It is
soon reveled that the students did in fact EARN their grades! Everyone is very
excited.
The End
