More Muscle for Arnold by Wayne Bishop

Subject:      More Muscle for Arnold
Author:       Wayne Bishop <wbishop@calstatela.edu>
Date:         Thu, 28 Aug 2003 06:11:19 -0700


Note:  The author's father is Jay Mathews, the well-known education writer 
for the Washington Post who wrote "Escalante, Best Teacher in America".

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jaime27aug27,1,6079861.story
THE RECALL CAMPAIGN / DISPATCHES
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
The candidate taps Jaime Escalante, the math teacher who inspired the film 
'Stand and Deliver,' for education team.
By Joe Mathews
Times Staff Writer

August 27, 2003

Jaime Escalante, the legendary calculus teacher who turned East Los Angeles 
teenagers into top math students, said he has agreed to advise Arnold 
Schwarzenegger on education issues.

In a phone interview this week from his native Bolivia, where he retired 
after a career teaching math, Escalante, 72, said he had been contacted by 
Schwarzenegger representatives and would be flying to California next week 
to discuss education with the gubernatorial candidate.

"I'm going to come up and help him out," Escalante said. "Once I get there, 
we'll have help from different sources, especially in the Latino community. 
We're going to do something."

By tapping Escalante, the Schwarzenegger campaign continues a pattern of 
using high-profile "wise men" to speak for the candidate on various issues. 
Last week, Schwarzenegger held a summit of a new "economic recovery 
council" co-headed by former Secretary of State George P. Shultz and 
billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett.

Schwarzenegger aides said they would announce a team of education advisors 
in early September to coincide with the back-to-school season.

Escalante is just one of many "big names" who will be part of 
Schwarzenegger's education team, a campaign spokesman said.

Escalante, whose success in teaching Advanced Placement calculus at 
Garfield High School inspired the movie "Stand and Deliver," is not new to 
the political world. He appeared at a Sacramento campaign forum during 
George W. Bush's presidential campaign and was featured in Spanish-language 
advertisements for Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Lungren in 1998. He 
was on Gov. Pete Wilson's short list for state superintendent of public 
instruction.

Escalante said he planned to meet with Schwarzenegger on Sept. 8.

"We're going to have to develop the attack plan," Escalante said.

As a teacher, Escalante used unorthodox techniques to inspire students. He 
presented calculus almost as a team sport, and used daily tests, Saturday 
sessions, math tricks, warm praise and even harsh insults to inspire his 
charges. He did not use lesson plans or the carefully scripted curriculums 
that state education officials have recently favored.

Escalante and Schwarzenegger have been friends since 1991, when the actor 
appeared on the PBS series "Futures," which consisted of 15-minute episodes 
that Escalante anchored. Escalante would talk about math, and then have a 
celebrity, in one episode Schwarzenegger, appear to discuss the real-world 
applications of the lesson.

That program was produced by the Foundation for Advancements in Science and 
Education. The foundation, which helped support Escalante's after-school 
and summer instruction, has no formal ties to the Church of Scientology but 
was founded by church members. The foundation remains a primary contact for 
Escalante, and the teacher said the Schwarzenegger campaign had reached out 
to him through the foundation.

Escalante said he was still grateful for Schwarzenegger's help and saw his 
campaign work as returning the favor.

"Somehow I had to pay back what he did for me," Escalante said.


Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times