Escalante Notes

Mr. Escalante originally came into the school to teach computer science, but the school doesn’t have the funding to buy them. Instead of going somewhere else, he stays. “Students will rise to the level of expectation.”  Mr. Escalante seems to be the only teacher who actually cares about the students’ education. The rest seem to think that the kids can’t learn. They don’t even care to try. “If they try and they don’t succeed, we’ll shatter what little self-confidence they have.”

Uses humor to relate to students. Draws attention when they are late or when they don’t do their homework, good way for them to learn accountability for their choices. Doesn’t care where they come from, gives everyone the same chance to learn. Goes out of his way to vouch for Anna when her father pulls her out of the class. Knows that she can be better and wants her to have the chance. Willing to spend his summer teaching the kids so they can learn calculus. At the beginning of the year, he gives them a contract. The kids are making the commitment to come to school an hour early, take it for 2 periods during the day, and stay afterschool until 5.

“Boys don’t like if you’re too smart.” Mother of one of the students.

Sacrificing time with his family, maybe a little bit obsessed?

“He works 60 hours a week and then he volunteers to teach night-school for free.” Escalante’s wife.

Pushes himself too hard to the point where he has a heart attack. Even still, he’s not going to give up on his students. Writing work down on a paper to send to them.

The students all receive a letter about their AP test. The board believes they cheated because all of them got the same answers wrong on their tests. Angel starts acting out. He feels like nothing will ever change for him.

“Do you think they cheated?”

“Mr. Escalante, you put these kids under a lot of pressure. They would have gone to any lengths to please you.”

Mr. Escalante receives a letter of resignation in his mailbox, then he finds out his car is stolen.

“Maybe it was a mistake, trying to teach them calculus.”

“Regardless of whether or not they passed that test, they learned.”

“Yeah, they learned if they try real hard, nothing changes. What kills me is they lost confidence in the system they’re finally qualified to be a part of.”  Mr. Escalante is feeling like he’s failed them. He wonders why he even tried in the first place.

Just kidding, car wasn’t stolen. The kids took it and fixed it up. He decides to go in and talk to the people who are investigating the kids’ tests. Educational Testing Service. He wants to see the tests to find out what mistakes they made.

Kids got too few wrong answers on the multiple choice portion and finished with time to spare.

“In this country, one is innocent until proven guilty. Not the other way around.”

“You should encourage them to retake.”

“If they retake the test, everyone will assume they cheated.”

Mr. Escalante accuses the ETS agents of racism.

“There wouldn’t even be a question if my students didn’t have Spanish surnames and come from a Burroughs high school.” “If this were Beverly Hills high-school, no one would question those test scores.”  

It really is pretty sad the reaction these kids get. They got the same answers wrong because they were taught by the same teacher, step by step. They have worked very hard to get to where they are. It’s unfair that because they are who they are, the ETS believes they aren’t smart enough to pass the test on their own.

The students decide to retake the test.  They only have one day to study.

“You are the true dreamers. Dreams accomplish wonderful things.”

After the test, the ETS wants to go over the tests twice just to make sure there are no misunderstandings. All of the students pass again, many of them receive perfect scores.

Stand and Deliver: Mr. Escalante

Mr. Escalante was originally supposed to be a computer science teacher. However, the inner city highschool he went to teach at didn't have the funding needed to buy the computers. Rather than teach somewhere else, Mr. Escalante stayed and took over teaching math. The class he had was rowdy. He handled it all in stride. He used humor to connect with his students. He taught in ways that were different and interesting to his students. One of the most important things that Mr. Escalante did was simple: he cared. He knew that his kids could learn, and he wanted them to. He pushed them to strive for excellence. He instilled in them a passion for learning. He gave them confidence in themselves. He says in a meeting at the beginning of the movie "Students will rise to the level of expectation." The rest of the teachers seemed to have given up. They didn't think that the students were smart enough to learn, so they didn't even care to try. "If they try and they don't suceed, we'll shatter what little self-confidence they have." Mr. Escalante drew to the forefront the students' responsibility for their education. If they didn't come to class, they didn't learn. He didn't try to guilt them into staying. He gave them power in their education. It was their choice to be there or not. In one scene, Angel is leaving the classroom to go with his friends. He waves goodbye, rather than trying to force Angel to sit back down. Mr. Escalante presents to each student the same thing. He provides them all with the opportunity to learn. He doesn't care who they are or where they came from. He knows that they all deserve the same opportunity.

The one big downfall that Mr. Escalante has is that maybe he is a bit obsessed? He pushes himself to the point of having a heart attack, and even that doesn't slow him down. He sacrafices time with his family to put in extra time with not only the kids, but also to teach night-school. "He works 60 hours a week and then volunteers to teach night-school for free."

The story of Mr. Escalante and his kids is inspirational, to say the least. He does what "can't be done". He gives a group of students hope that they might not have otherwise had. He really believes in his kids.

Favorite essay of the three.

The essay I enjoyed reading most was Malcolm X's. I feel that his writing style is inviting to the reader. Again, he has a point to get across, but the essay is still conversational. It speaks volumes about the things he learned in his time spent in prison. Aside from the tone of the essay, Malcolm's essay was also, I feel, the most descriptive. When Malcolm details reading after "lights out" I could really see it. Not only that, but it provides the tiniest glimpse into his life before prison. As a reader, I was curious as to what exactly happened "in the streets."

"At one hour intervals the night guards paced past every room. Each time I heard the approaching footsteps, I jumped into bed and feigned sleep. As soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area of that light-glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes - until the guard approached again. That went on until three or four every morning  Three or four hours of sleep night was enough for me. Often in the years in the streets I had slept less than that."

Above all, Malcolm X's paper was inspirational. He turned a bad situation into an opportunity. He wholeheartedly threw himself into learning to read. Even though it was hard, even though he struggled, he persevered. He pushed himself to learn. I enjoyed reading it. I said previously in a blog post that I was disappointed there were only 3 pages. This still holds true, and I plan to find the book and read it. In 3 short pages, he was able to pull me in and leave me wanting for more. I think that's something that all writers strive to do.

Differences Between Essays

The biggest difference between Malcolm X's, Franklin's, and Rose's essays is the voice in which it was written. Franklin's paper is very formal and proper. A result of the time in which it was written. It's also pretty hard to read, because of how wordy it is, as well as because of the grammatical differences of that time. Malcolm's paper was less formal. More conversational. He uses a good vocabulary of words, but doesn't lose the reader because of them. His paper was also much more descriptive than Franklin's. Rose's essay is by far the least formal of the three. Rose's essay sounds as if he's speaking at a high school, drawing attention to the issue. I feel that the reason behind the essays are different as well. Malcolm X's and Franklin's essays were excerpts from autobiographies. They were simply to tell a story, one chapter in each person's life. Although, I feel that Malcolm X's essay was in part tied to his activism. I feel that Rose's essay was written more to draw attention to the fact that there are kids, smart kids, who fall through the cracks.

Mike Rose's "I just wanna be average."

1) Describe Rose's life in Voc.Ed. What were his teachers like? Have you ever had experience with teacher like these?

Rose was put into Voc. Ed. because of an error made by the school. His test scores had gotten mixed up with that of another Rose within the system. The Voc. Ed. classroom sounds like a place to dump those students deemed "unteachable" by the school. The Voc. Ed. teachers had given up on their students. It was their job to make sure the kids passed, but they had nothing invested. They didn't care. I haven't really had personal experience with a teacher like this. However, there were a number of kids in my high school class who required special help understanding material and taking tests. These helpers, or paraprofessionals, didn't actually help. They more or less handed kids the answers to the homework and tests. Wrote papers for them and did their big projects.

2) What did Voc. Ed. do to Rose and his fellow students? How did it affect them intellectually, emotionally, and socially? Why was it subsequently so hard for Rose to catch up in math?

Voc. Ed. did nothing good for Rose and his classmates. It gave them the perception that they couldn't learn, so they might as well not even try. It took away any desire any of them had to learn. There were students who were intelligent in Rose's class, like his friend Ted Richard. Ted was intelligent, although he didn't fit into the mold for intelligence, so he was placed into Voc. Ed. The Voc. Ed. kids were isolated from the rest of the school. As such, they were outcast. There was a stigma attached to anyone who was associated with it. I'm sure that emotionally, it was hard. To constantly be told, "You are not smart enough." has to suck. Not only that, but after a while, you begin to take on that identity of "stupid". It personifies you. After his time in Voc. Ed, I can totally understand why Rose would have a hard time catching up in math. He'd been told for so long he couldn't do it, that he began to believe it himself.

3) Why is high school so disorienting to students like Ken Harvey? How does he cope with it? What other strategies do students use to cope with the pressures and judgments they encounter in school?

Ken Harvey was put under the label "common". He dealt with this by just accepting his fate. It was easier for him to go along with it, rather than fight it. I've seen a lot of kids do this. There were a couple of kids in my graduating class who were labeled "bad" kids. They weren't bad. Because they had made mistakes, people had this perception about them that they couldn't shake. No matter how hard those kids tried, it didn't matter. So, I guess as a way to deal with it, they just accepted it. And they truly became bad kids. They smoked at lunch, they skipped class, and they didn't do their homework. It became their identity. In high school there is nothing more valuable than an identity or sense of self, a voice. These kids had been given an identity, and they accepted it. At least it was better than being nobody. I've also seen the attitude of "I don't care" even when you know they do. Not caring takes away the expectation of doing well, if you don't try, you can't fail.

4) What, if anything, do you find disorienting about college? What steps can students take to lessen disorientation?

The thing I found most disorienting about college is just the mix of different people that exist within the classroom. I haven't been in school for 5 years, and even then, the school I came from did not hold a variety of people. I struggle with feeling like I can't compare to other students or that I'm not on the same level as far as intelligence goes. I have had classes with 18 year olds who I feel are much, much smarter than me. I have the tendency to sit back a little until I've reached some level of comfort with the class. This is something that I'm dealing with personally. It's just taking me time to get used to it.

5) How does your experience of education compare (or contrast, or both) to Mike Rose's?

I had quite the opposite experience in high school. I was lazy, and honestly, a little scared of failure, so I didn't really try. I constantly had teachers pushing me to do better. I took a geometry class my sophomore year. I passed every test in that class, but failed, because I never did the homework. My teacher was baffled as to why I wouldn't just do it. My senior year, I had many meetings with the guidance counselor who didn't understand why I wasn't on track to graduate. She wanted to know why such a "bright student" would hold themselves back like that.

Educational Narrative - Final Draft

Two and a half years ago, I was living in Dawson, MN with my boyfriend of 5 years, John. I was 21 and I had 2 children who were under the age of 2. Because I had no family in the area, I had been handling 2 children on my own since the day I left the hospital after the birth of my son. He had acid reflux and was vastly different from my daughter. Violet had been a happy baby. She only ever cried when she was hungry, even then, it was not nearly as bad as the piercing cries that emitted from my tiny 6 pound son. I use the word cry loosely. Screaming bloody murder is probably more accurate. He hardly slept at night, which meant I hardly slept at night. And then I had to wake up and care for a rambunctious 1 year old AND a crabby baby all day. Besides that, my relationship had been falling apart for some time. John wanted me to be a housewife, while he worked, but the reality was that he couldn't handle it. He stopped going to work, leaving us with no money, ever. He also didn't understand the amount of stress I was under with the kids. I was expected to be “super-mom”. After all, I had chosen to have these kids, they were my responsibility. It was not acceptable to ask for help from his family, but I was also under intense scrutiny. They were watching every step, judging every choice.

Things finally reached a breaking point when John's mother told me that I didn't deserve my children. That it would be better for them if I gave them up for adoption. The environment I was living in was suffocating, depressing. I made the choice to leave John. I decided that it was better to be a single mother than to live another day where I was. I called my mom and asked her to help me. She flew to Minnesota to come and get us. Driving away from the house, I could feel the weight being lifted off my shoulders little by little. Every mile further was one mile closer to happiness. When I got to Washington, I moved in with my mom and applied for every program available to me.

For 6 months I lived with her. She helped me as much as possible and I did what I could to help her. She worked full time and had 4 other kids to take care of. My only real contribution to the house was to clean up and cook dinner at the end of the day. I started to get frustrated with my situation. I was glad to be with family, but the feeling of failure was beginning to creep up. I had simply moved from relying on John to provide, to relying on my mom. More and more I began to feel like us being there was an imposition on her.  I finally moved out when I had secured an apartment in a subsidized complex; my rent was adjusted based on my income. I was working with the state through a program called KCR. On my first day, I was beyond excited. I hadn't worked in a year. I was overwhelmed with the possibilities and opportunities I had. KCR put me into a volunteer position working with Developmentally Disabled adults, with a company called Communitas. The reality of being a single mother hit me then. I took my kids to daycare, went to work, picked them up, made dinner, played with them, gave baths and brushed teeth, read books, and off to bed they went. Then I took care of the house before finally crashing at the end of the night. I was doing everything on my own again. I had been spoiled by living with my mom. Now it was just me, with 2 kids, a job, and a house to take care of.

Little by little things became easier. Every day was better than the last, I was a little less exhausted, I was a little bit closer to “making it”. I was working towards the goal of providing a good life for my kids, and that included college. I had walked in graduation in 2007, but I hadn't actually received my diploma. I had missed it by 2 credits. Through KCR, I was able to attain my GED. I pushed through the entire self-paced curriculum in 2 weeks and got nearly perfect scores on all my tests. After I had gotten my GED, the company that I was volunteering with hired me. I had only been volunteering with them for 2 months, which was much less than the usual 6 months of volunteering. I was given a position at one of their adult family homes in Silverdale. I excelled in my new job. I loved it. Caring for people had always been a passion of mine. Through Communitas, I was able to complete all the necessary training to work in an adult family home. I worked with Communitas for 6 months successfully. I loved every minute of it. I felt like things were finally falling into place for me. I was finally taking care of things on my own, and doing it well. I was happier than I had been in a long time.

The bottom fell out when I lost my job in January of 2011. I had lost the job through no fault of my own, simply to circumstances beyond my control. I'll admit, I was heartbroken. I had worked so hard to get where I was, and in one phone call, it was gone. For 6 months, I searched for a job with no luck. Finally, and just in the nick of time, I got a job working with a cleaning company. It was not ideal in the least, but a job is a job and beggars can't be choosers. I quickly gained regulars who loved me and earned 3 raises within 3 months. I hated my job, but I was good at it.

Things were going good for me again. I was working, and taking care of my kids. But I found that I was not doing much besides that. I had been single for 2 years, and I was finally in a place where I felt I could give time to something and someone else. I met my boyfriend, Michael, online. He was amazing from day one. After less than a month of dating, I took a risk and moved in with him. It quickly became apparent that Michael was the complete opposite of John. Whereas I was left to my own devices with John, Michael became my partner. He was someone that I could fall back on, someone to share my thoughts with at the end of the day. He quickly took on the responsibility of being a father to my kids. Every day I am thankful that I found him. I registered for classes at OC for the 2012 Fall Quarter. I felt like I had made it. Finally, all this time this is what I had been working towards. I registered with the full support of my family and Michael. Life was good.

Then reality struck again. In October, I lost a man I had known as my grandpa. His brain was without oxygen for over 10 minutes, and though paramedics had revived his body, it was too late to save him. Grandma had to make the choice to take him off of life support. We all gathered around him and said good-bye. Once they had taken him off the ventilator, his body tried to breath for the next hour and a half. Nobody had expected it. The doctors had advised us that it would happen fairly quickly. The sound of his body struggling for breath is one that I will never be able to erase from my memory.

Shortly after this, I found out that my younger sister had been depressed and had been cutting herself to cope. I received a phone call late one night, my mother asking me to go and sit with my younger brothers while she took Kelsey to the emergency room. Kelsey had been in her room writing good-bye letters to all of us and was planning to kill herself. She was later admitted into an inpatient facility. I lost focus in school. I stopped going, stopped doing homework. I stopped going to work. I just...stopped. It has taken time to work through things, and I'm still working through them. I registered for Winter Quarter, went back to work, and here I am.

Over the last 2 years, I have dealt with a lot of things. I have learned that it is okay to ask for help sometimes. When I think back to the situation that I was living in before I moved here, I am so happy that I made that phone call to my mom. Had I not asked for help at that time, I don’t know where I would be now. I had to set aside my pride and just accept the help where I could get it. That is a lesson that I am still learning. I have learned that life is not fair. Sometimes, no matter how hard you work, things just don’t work out. Sometimes people are taken from our lives, or terrible things happen to people we love. It’s important to let yourself be sad and angry, but not wallow in it. I have learned that things do get better. When you’ve hit the bottom, there is nowhere to go but up. Above all, I have learned that I am capable, I am strong, and I am deserving of a good life. Today, I went to work at a job I love. Today, I went to school and was able to get work done. Today, I came home to two happy, beautiful, smiling kids and a man who loves me. Today, life is good.

Group Topics

Marijuana. Cannabis. Mary-Jane. Weed. Ganja. Marijuana has a lot of different names. It’s got a pretty recognizable shape. The leaves are green with 5 thin fingers. It’s also got a pretty distinct smell. My roommate smokes weed and her entire half of the house smells like old weed and McDonalds. Interestingly enough, while weed is illegal in the United States, it’s never been linked to an overdose death. Compare that with cigarettes, which are known to cause cancer, and alcohol, which is known to cause impairment in judgment and is responsible for many deaths every year.

Cell phones are pretty much a staple in any given person’s daily life. Cell phones are similar to a drug. We are all addicted. When I first got a cell phone, I didn’t realize how much I would use it. Now, I can’t leave the house without it. And when I do, it’s like a little piece of me is missing because I use it for everything. I don’t even own a home phone. Cell phones are also pretty similar to a house phone. Only you can take it places with you and use it wherever. Cell phones are pretty demanding, if you think about it. We’ve all trained ourselves to jump at any buzz or ring. We have to charge it every night, sometimes more often. It begs us to check its Facebook and Gmail. Cell phones are actually kind of like a needy boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s a dependent relationship. Almost abusive. Cell phones make us believe that we can’t live without them, that we’ll never find anyone else, and that without them, we have nothing. Cell phones are kind of dicks that way. Cell phones are also similar to computers. Only they fit into your pocket. At least, now they do. They used to be giant things that you had to carry around which I kind of feel like kind of took away the convenience of it.  Cell phones are similar to beepers and pagers. Only smarter, and cooler. And less of a throwback to the 90s.