This 1982 drama film tells the story of educator Jaime “Kimo” Escalante, a new teacher at the Garfield High School with a determined spirit to change the academic structure and enhance their level of teaching by relating the subject to personal matters. In the below clip, you see him teaching his class how to solve a mathematical problem by referencing the subjects in the word problem to “girlfriends” and/or “boyfriends.” A teacher who not only is able to do so, but has the courage to execute that style of teaching, is a truly resolute educator.
This film demonstrates that teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds can accomplish amazing things when properly motivated and assisted by a good teacher. There is also strong evidence that twelve Garfield High students who passed the AP Calculus test in 1982 cheated on one problem: a question for which they all got the same wrong answer. It is clear that these students learned calculus and this fact does not undercut the message of the film. However, the evidence of cheating puts an interesting twist on the dispute with the ETS. It also provides an opportunity to teach students about due process in modern society and some of the problems with cheating.
This Learning Guide explores teaching opportunities from “Stand and Deliver” in six areas:
- Lasting Change Takes Preparation to Achieve and Effort to Maintain
- Ideas Move Across Continents and Oceans
- We Can Get A Taste of Calculus in Finding the Area of a Circle
- Literary Devices in a Work of Historical Fiction
- Public Policy and Burdens of Proof in Modern Society (Perhaps the ETS Gave the Students a Break)
- Some Problems With Cheating
References
http://thecelebritycafe.com/2013/04/top-10-most-inspiring-teachers-movies-2/
Movies and Learning 