Stand And Deliver: Movie Analysis

Growing up as a Latina in a small conservative town was not always an easy thing. I often faced presumptions that I would not graduate high school or amount to much in life because of my background. I knew that I would have to work twice as hard to accomplish my goals and prove to myself and my peers that the stereotypes made of Latinos and our success were nothing more than thoughts by people ignorant to our abilities and strengths. I was always determined to achieve my goals, even when others doubted or implied that I couldn’t.

I remember being especially motivated by the movie Stand and Deliver, which I saw when I was in elementary school. The movie depicted the real life story of Jaime Escalante, a mathematics teacher of a Los Angeles school with mostly minority students. In the movie, most administrators and teachers doubted the abilities of these students based on stereotypes of their cultures and where they grew up, but Mr. Escalante decided to prove them wrong and pushed the students to a point that even the students started believing in themselves. His class worked so hard that they eventually passed a rigorous Advanced Placement exam in calculus, not without some controversy, but the

Seeing the passion that Mr. Escalante had for teaching and the passion I have seen in some of my personal teachers has inspired me to follow in their footsteps. I want to be able to teach others and motivate them even when they themselves don’t believe they can achieve such greatness. Every student, no matter the ethnicity, socio-economic background or gender is capable of succeeding in the classroom and in life. I will be attending San Jose State University in the fall and plan to receive my degree in Liberal Studies so that I can become an Elementary School Teacher at El Toro Elementary the school that sparked my inspiration to become a