{"id":142,"date":"2010-04-25T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2010-04-25T14:07:51","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T19:07:51","slug":"a-great-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"A Great Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

It saddened me to hear that Jaime Escalante died<\/a> from kidney cancer the end of March.\u00a0 You may remember Escalante as the math teacher who inspired underachievers at an East L.A. high school to score high marks in calculus in the early 80s.\u00a0 This impressive accomplishment was documented in the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver<\/em> starring Edward James Olmos.\u00a0\u00a0Olmos had this to say about Escalante:\u00a0 \u201cJaime didn\u2019t just teach math.\u00a0 Like all great teachers, he changed lives.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the early 90s my husband and I were privileged to share a meal with Jaime Escalante as representatives of the Ambassador Cultural Foundation in San Francisco, CA.\u00a0 Later he addressed the whole group and I will never forget the story he told about a couple of his former students, both named Johnny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first Johnny was a top-notch pupil.\u00a0 He turned in all of his homework on time, made excellent grades, was respectful and never disruptive.\u00a0 You might say he was a model student \u2013 the kind all teachers dream of having in class.<\/p>\n

The second Johnny was annoying and for wont of a better word, somewhat of a pain.\u00a0 He rarely turned in homework on time, made below average grades, not all that respectful and quite disruptive.<\/p>\n

When it came time for the first parent\/teacher conference of the year Johnny\u2019s father and mother were surprised about the glowing report Mr. Escalante gave on their son\u2019s progress:\u00a0 \u201cI must say that Johnny is the type of student every teacher dreams of having in class.\u00a0 I really enjoy having him as a student.\u201d\u00a0 The parents were pleased and rushed home and tell Johnny how much Mr. Escalante liked him.<\/p>\n

About a half an hour later the other Johnny\u2019s parents came in.\u00a0 It was then Escalante discovered he had gotten the two Johnny\u2019s mixed up.\u00a0 That glowing report was given for the wrong boy.<\/p>\n

The next day disruptive Johnny came up to Mr. Escalante and said, \u201cMy parents told me what you said about me.\u201d\u00a0 And from that day forward he never had a bit of trouble out of that boy again.\u00a0 He was responsive, attentive, and eager to learn.\u00a0 The point being that children who feel validated, loved, and appreciated will usually perform accordingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is a fine line between having unrealistic expectations of our children and encouraging them to do their best.\u00a0 Jaime Escalante seemed to find that balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s society does not give teachers the respect or appreciation they deserve. Jesus was a master teacher who changed lives (Matthew 7:28-29).\u00a0 He was interesting and used illustrations from everyday life to draw people closer to God. \u00a0\u00a0No wonder crowds of people followed him everywhere.\u00a0 In Biblical times being a teacher was considered a high calling, not just a profession (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Jaime Escalante we have lost something very valuable.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve never seen Stand and Deliver <\/em>I highly recommend it.\u00a0 It is a fitting legacy to someone who will be difficult to replace \u2013 a great teacher \u2013 one that changes lives!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It saddened me to hear that Jaime Escalante died from kidney cancer the end of March.\u00a0 You may remember Escalante as the math teacher who inspired underachievers at an East L.A. high school to score high marks in calculus in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}