#Stand and deliver movie
Hey, I don’t know you or situation, but this movie tells me that kids like you have it rough. Now, I understand that being a white educator working at a school where students of color are the majority may be a bit unsettling, but showing “Stand and Deliver” or “Freedom Writers” isn’t the right way to gain your students’ trust or motivate them to do better. “You know what this is?!?! This is a ‘fuck you’ to me!” she screamed.Ĭlearly, this teacher had seen “Freedom Writers.” One day, after most of my classmates and I had failed our first geometry test of the year, our teacher made sure she voiced her anger loud and clear. Nobody showed us “Stand and Deliver.” Instead, teachers showed “Freedom Writers,” which is essentially the same movie, only with a white woman playing the role of the hero-teacher instead of Edward James Olmos. I eventually ended up transferring to a new school on the east side of Chula Vista, where I hoped to never watch “Stand and Deliver” again. I guess this, along with making us watch “Stand and Deliver,” was supposed to inspire us to surpass all the challenges we faced, but it just confirmed what we all knew: Everyone thinks we’re dumb.įrom then on, the movie became a substitute teacher. Teachers would pop “Stand and Deliver” on the VCR and grade papers, while the rest of us tried to stay awake. When it came to academic performance, we were always at the bottom. He was also very fond of district data and often showed us where we ranked compared with other schools. The first teacher who made us watch “Stand and Deliver” was a math instructor with a dry sense of humor. They’d line us up against the wall as a police dog came around sniffing for anything suspicious. I vividly remember the days police officers disrupted my classes at Castle Park Middle School to search for drugs. About 40 percent were still learning English.
#Stand and deliver for free
Sixty-five percent qualified for free and reduced lunch. More than 80 percent of the students at my school were Latino. For years, the west side of Chula Vista was seen as a tough place to live. I understand the well-meaning if misguided logic behind promoting the movie: If they did it, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t. And by showing this movie, it confirms your students’ worst fears: that their teacher thinks less of them and defines them by the struggles they face. It’s a classic white-savior complex - the idea that you’ll swoop in and transform the lives of students of color. Since 1988, you’ve used the real-life story of a group of Latino students at an East Los Angeles high school who - under the tough but loving guidance of their math teacher, Jaime Escalante - beat the odds and passed an Advanced Placement calculus exam.Īlthough I think everyone, not just Latino students, should see the movie at least once, it’s clear that you depend on the movie to calm your own nerves about teaching kids who have been labeled violent, poor or even dumb their entire lives.
It’s old, cliché and downright offensive. But on behalf of all students of color everywhere, please stop. The odds seemed like they were stacked against him,” the Union-Tribune reported. “In 2010, when Ballard was brought in by then-Superintendent Jesus Gandara to turn the program around, he said he felt like Edward James Olmos’ character in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. Then, Southwest Middle School teacher Keith Ballard brought it up in a conversation about his experience creating a music program in a low-income school. Recently, educators in San Diego have had the movie on their minds, and have even used it as a shield to protect them from backlash.įirst, San Diego Unified school board trustee John Lee Evans brought up the movie as a way to call into question VOSD’s reporting on the district’s graduation rate.
If you’ve ever taught at a low-income school with a lot of black or brown kids, I’d bet you’ve shown the movie “Stand and Deliver.
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