Title: Jaime Escalante | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: Escalante, Jaime: 1930—: Educator
Escalante, Jaime: 1930—: Educator
Jaime Escalante: 1930 —: Educator
Early Teaching Experience
At a Glance . . .
Immigrated to the United States
Challenged Students to Excel
Became a National Hero
Joined English for Children Initiative
Sources
Books
Periodicals
On-line
Jaime Escalante
Jaime Escalante
Public Acclaim
Program Continues
Further Reading

Content: Challenged Students to Excel
Escalante had a very unorthodox way of teaching that both frightened and inspired his students. He was not afraid to yell at students for being late or lazy, but he also gave them encouragement and taught them to believe in themselves. He told them that they could succeed at everything if they had the ganas, the desire. He decorated his classroom with inspirational sayings and sports posters. He was imaginative in his techniques to get his points across. He once brought a meat cleaver and an apple to class to teach his students fractions. He would wear funny hats, make jokes about sex, and do whatever he could think of to get his students' attention — and he was successful. He soon gained the students' respect and they nicknamed him Kemo Sabe, the man who knows, which was Tonto's name for the famous Lone Ranger. Garfield's students began to rise to the challenge set forth by Escalante. When he introduced calculus in 1979 he had five students in the class.