A student of longtime Los Angeles high school teacher Jaime Escalante's, now a teacher herself, called her former instructor "a master artist." Indeed, it was his refusal to accept commonly held beliefs that made his work so beautiful. Unlike many others, he refused to tolerate the notion that inner-city students were incapable of learning. Escalante, whose inspirational story was the basis for the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, died March 30 at 79 after a years-long battle with bladder cancer. Upon arriving in the U.S. from Bolivia, Escalante studied English at night to earn his California teaching credentials. At Garfield High...
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