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Comparing Stand And Deliver

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The question if geniuses are born or made is a long standing argument between two sides but it is no question that one must acquire sufficient expertise in an achievement to be considered a genius, and to do that, they must have the opportunity to do so. Thus, Intelligence depends on environmental factors as perfectly depicted in the movie, “Stand and Deliver”.

Stand and Deliver features Jaime Escalante, who chooses to leave his high-paying job to take a teaching position at a high school where he agrees to teach basic mathematics. His students are all Hispanic, and he soon learns that the school is poor and receives none of the benefits or funding of richer private schools. This contributes to just generally bad teachers that don't …show more content…

It's important to note that these students have low academic skills not because of genetics, but because of their upbringings and social expectations due to their race and economic status. Escalante realizes the toxic environment and starts setting forth a better example for students to follow, an example that wasn't present in their surroundings before. By setting a better learning situation, he is able to not only teach them basic math, but pushes them to learn more advanced mathematics and even inspire the most troublesome of students. Escalante eventually gets the bright idea to prepare the kids for the national Advance Placement Calculus test, one of the most challenging of all preparatory test that can earn early college credits. He is met with backlash from the teachers who say, "You can't teach logarithms to illiterates." Jaime believes otherwise, and the students proceed to prove them wrong by finding the courage to separate themselves from societies expectations for failure and to rise above through hard work and dedication. Their rigorous study sessions and desire to learn pay off by receiving astounding scores on the AP test and reaching their goals. However, their toxic environment bites them again when the

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