‘Stand and Deliver’ highlights importance of Education

The weekly film screening at the American Centre focuses on the theme of education throughout the month of September. Directed by Ramon Menendez 'Stand and Deliver' cinemaic portrayal of real-life Jaime Escalante, a no-nonsense mathematics teacher in a tough East LA high school screens at 6 pm on Tuesday, September 04.

Given a classroom full of "losers" and "unteachables," Escalante is determined to turn his young charges' lives around. Drawing from his own cultural heritage, Escalante forms a bond with his largely Hispanic student body, by invoking the names of famous Spaniards and Latin Americans whose great accomplishments were predicated on their ability to learn. The students gradually come to realize that the only way they'll escape their own poverty-stricken barrio is to improve themselves intellectually.

As a result, the class' academic achievements soar dramatically, too dramatically for the Educational Testing Service, which is convinced that the class' high test scores are the results of cheating. The triumphant exoneration of Escalante's students provides Stand and Deliver with its rousingly upbeat conclusion. Directed in 1988, the film stars Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Virginia Paris, Mark Eliot and Mark Phelan.