A Tribute to Jaime Escalante

This last Tuesday, the 30th of March, marked the passing of a truly remarkable man. Many of us who grew up in LA during the 80′s and 90′s might still remember watching the movie “Stand and Deliver” in our classrooms. If you haven’t seen this movie, we’d strongly recommend adding it to your NetFlix queue. Escalante has been hailed by many as a “miracle worker”, a teacher who was able to take a group of inner-city kids who no one believed in and lead them to outperform most of the high schools in California in terms of achievement in mathematics. Again, this was not about arts, sports, music or even literature. He made them excel in not just math, but calculus.So here’s to all our teachers who worked a tough job, got a lousy pay, and yet gave from their hearts to help each of us become who we are today. Although I never met Mr. Escalante, I’m sure I benefited from his “ganas”.It’s heartbreaking to read through his Wikipedia entry. After some years of success, he was eventually forced out of Garfield High by the entrenched establishment that was being disrupted by his aggressive vision and successes. It was as sad as a body rejecting a heart transplant. With Mr. Escalante’s departure, the math program he created at Garfield quickly collapsed and within a short few years, reverted to the same dismal stateas before his arrival.So what is Mr. Escalante’s legacy? We’re not satisfied to remember Mr. Escalante as a “miracle”. We don’t think that’s what he would have wanted. With his remarkable vision and ganas, he has shown us what is possible. Now how can we repeat his accomplishments across every subject, every school? That is the challengehe leaves to us.We also saw this article from the Cato Institute on WSJ. It starts with lauding Mr. Escalante’s work but then deftly switches to bashing the teachers unions and calling for the privatization of the education system. As a California voter, I’ve seen those school voucher initiatives on almost every ballet since I’ve been old enough to vote. Time and again, they trot out the same argument that privatization would magically cure all of the education system’s woes. Time and again, they conveniently ignore the opposing argument that the effective result of school vouchers would be a regressive tax that reduces the burden on high income families while providing no benefits to most students, especially the ones with the greatest need… like those at schools like Garfield High.Why is that the case? It’s just dollars and cents. If you were running a for-profit charter school “business”, do you think you would get the best ROI by entering markets like the inner-city? Not a chance. You’d stick with the lower hanging fruit of the upper- and upper-middle class neighborhoods. Leave the trouble areas for the public system. If a shift to privatization won’t improve our schools, what will? Let’s find out. We owe it to Jaime Escalante to carry the torch forward.

献给Jaime Escalante 三月三十日。上个星期二。Jamie Escalante去世了，这世上少了一个非同寻常的人。 我们重温了根据他的真实经历摄制的故事片《Stand and Deliver》。强烈推荐没有看过这部影片的朋友把它加入你的“必看影片列表”中去。Escalante被很多人尊称为“魔法师”。当年他放弃了在计算机公司的高薪工作，来到了洛杉矶市中心平民窟一个面临关闭的高中Garfield High School，接管了一群丧失了信任和希望的学生，决意带领他们攻克最难的一门学科：数学。他坚信，对这些迷茫的学生来说，在最难的学科拔尖将会成为最有效的强心剂。这些学生奇迹般地在大学预修微积分课程测试获取高分。他们的表现太超乎寻常，以致于美国教育测试中心甚至设立调查小组追究他们是否集体作弊。在Escalante执教期间，Garfield High的学生在大学预修微积分课程测试中的表现领先全国。对这些贫民窟中挣扎的学生来说，上大学曾经是个天方夜谭。在微积分课上拔尖，使得他们相信上大学不再是一个荒唐可笑的白日梦。 向Escalante致敬！也向那些在工作艰苦、收入微薄的岗位上贡献了全部身心、造就了我们的老师们致敬！虽然我从来没有遇到过Escalante，但是并不妨碍我被他熊熊燃烧的“ganas”温暖和照亮。ganas在西班牙文中是“渴望、激情”的意思。Escalante要他的学生相信他们可以改变他们的未来，唯一的前提，他说：“只要你们给我一样东西：渴望”。（“There are some people in this world who will assume that you know less than you do, because of your name and your complexion. But math is the great equalizer… You’re gonna work harder than you ever worked before. And the only thing I ask from you is ganas. Desire.” ——Escalante in Stand and Deliver) Escalante的wikipedia页面上的描述令人伤心。十年之后，Escalante被迫离开了Garfield High。就像一个有病的躯体排斥一次成功的心脏移植，Escalante被排斥了，因为他的成功和远见“扰乱”了教育系统的秩序。对于某些人来说，承认Escalante的成功意味这承认现有的制度存在严重的问题、承认现有的制度需要根本的变革。变革往往意味着权利和利益的交接。既得利益集团宁可把Escalante的成功模式推崇为“奇迹”，因为如果是奇迹，那就无法复制。在他离开之后，Garfield High 的数学教学项目一落千丈，几年之后，重新回到了Escalante加入之前的无望状态。 Escalante留下了什么样的传奇？我们不甘于把Escalante纪念为纯粹的“奇迹”。Escalante自己也不甘如此。他以他自己非凡的远见和“ganas”，向我们展示了什么可能是可以企及的。他留下的挑战是，我们如何能把他的模式复制到所有的学科，所有的学校……？ 这篇来自Cato Institute刊登于《华尔街日报》的评论文章，从赞美Escalante开始，迅速滑入对教师工会的简短批判，最后以教育系统应该被私营化作结。“教育券”制度（如果你决定送你的孩子去私立学校，你可以得到以“教育券”形式的退税）的提议，总是此起彼伏。周而复始地，他们扔出那个让人感到审美疲劳的辩论：私营化将会神奇地解决现有教育系统的所有问题；周而复始地，他们很省心地避免提及教育券制度的实际效应是累退税制度（其结果是穷人的纳税／收入比例比富人的更高），高收入家庭的教育负担减轻，而大部分家庭的教育负担依旧，最需要帮助的学生（像 Garfield High这样的学校的学生）得不到任何帮助。教育券的数额并不足以让原本不能支付私立学校的家庭改变他们的决定，而同时，公共教育基金额却会降低。另一方面，私有基金不会进入最需要投资的社区。在商言商。如果你是一个投资或经营私立学校的生意人，追求经济高回报是你的使命，你会愿意在市中心贫民窟投资吗？你将更乐意驻守在胜利果实随手可得的上层或中上层社区。那些比较麻烦的社区？还是留给公共教育系统去解决吧。 如果教育私营化不是出路，那么我们的出路在哪儿？我们必须不懈地寻找答案。——这是Jaime Escalante应得的回报。

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