Stand and Deliver!

The movie was very powerful. Olmos's acting was superb. The message that minorities could succeed if only they had a mentor and tried hard was uplifting. And having white bad guys who couldn't believe they could do it so they were accused of cheating just made it a perfect fairytale of political correctness.

Is it just too good a story to tamper with, too inspirational to let go?

The real teacher was exceptional, and his story of real life battles with educational bureaucracy is extremely interesting but in the end depressing because he was shut out and defeated. The actor was so strongly typecast by the part that he, not the teacher, is called upon to speak at educational conferences.

But the reason I started this thread is to ask whether it is reasonable to continue painting the white-faced testing department as racist for accusing those fresh faced latino teens of cheating, of perhaps refusing to believe minorities were capable of achievement.

Because they did cheat, or didn't you know that? A biography was written about the teacher a few years ago and many of the students gave permission to the author to look at the exams, and even admitted to passing around a note for a certain question. The odd part was that the answer on the note was wrong and they would have passed, as later proved with a retest.

Interesting story indeed. But would it have touched such a social nerve without the background of racism given out in the media of the day and in the movie?

Stereotypes. I guess they can be wrong sometimes.

 

How Do I Reach These Kids? (Season 12, Episode 5) - Video Clips - South Park Studios

 

I saw this a long time ago. Was a pretty good film. I liked American Me..a bit better.

 

People LOVE the notion that black/Hispanic kids are these geniuses just waiting to be sprung on the world, if it weren't for those racist white jerks holding them back with their prejudice.

Problem is, the raw material just isn't there. Blacks and Hispanics aren't as smart as white kids, and no amount of inspirational teachers, tax dollars or Hollywood movies will change that fact.

In California, Hispanics are now the majority in the school system. California is also in the shitter, economically and otherwise. Coincidence?

 

I thought it was an inspiring story and a great movie, everybody loves to root for the underdog. Probably a large percentage of the people who went to see the movie were white, and I would venture to say all of them were sympathetic toward the hispanic kids. White people don't want blacks or hispanics to fail, they want them to be successful, pull their own weight, and make a contribution to society. Definately whites were mis-stereotyped in this movie.

 

NAMs have raw material. not as much as whites or asians but there is still a lot there. one in six blacks is as smart as the average white.

inspirational teachers and local programs driven by a forceful administrator can make a huge impact by finding the involved students and parents. unfortunately this can't be scaled up because there aren't enough inspired teachers, forceful administrators, hardworking students or involved parents. of course the flip side how much improvement do you get when you put white children into intensive programs. a few years ago a school in Washington DC(?) drastically cut the classroom size. all the students enjoyed a jump in scores but the better students had huge increases while the lower scorers only had modest increases, so the racial gap increased. was this program a success because everyone improved or a failure because the racial gap increased?

I have to say that I am shocked at the transformation of California from a dream to a nightmare in only two generations.

 

I liked the movie at the time as well. a few years ago I watched it on TV and noticed the stilted interaction between the teacher and the testing board. I wondered why there hadn't been lawsuits involved. Now I know the reason. I wonder how many students are allowed to retake AP finals after they have been caught cheating? it really is interesting how minority student cheating turned into nasty white racism after the story was put through the Political Correctness black box transmogrifier.

 

Just keep talking Willy.

 

Asians don't need "inspirational teachers" to achieve because they have "inspirational parents and families".

 

That makes the difference with ALL racial groups. Period.