tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29868932.post6479635750436576848..comments2024-02-14T22:50:48.749+10:30Comments on Bill Kerr: what happens after sorry?Bill Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00206808014093631762noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29868932.post-45488166027548596992008-02-19T12:26:00.000+10:302008-02-19T12:26:00.000+10:30hi mark,I liked Stand and Deliver so much that I b...hi mark,<BR/><BR/>I liked Stand and Deliver so much that I bought a copy of the video. <BR/><BR/>The real life teacher was Jaime Escalante. There is a <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Escalante" REL="nofollow">nice account of his life </A>, with references to the film, on wikipediaBill Kerrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00206808014093631762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29868932.post-82338943925897468502008-02-19T09:09:00.000+10:302008-02-19T09:09:00.000+10:30Hi Bill. I can't say I'm that familiar with this i...Hi Bill. I can't say I'm that familiar with this issue, as I'm in the U.S., though I have followed your posts on indigeonous issues, and can relate in some ways because in our country we have perrenial political discourses on poor minorities and how to raise them out of poverty. The solutions put forward sound similar to the "balms" you describe being put forward for the aboriginies.<BR/><BR/>I've observed that sometimes politicians here campaign passionately on things they'd like to accomplish, in hopes that they can cull together a political coalition that can actually get it done. I think it's a vain hope. Typically things don't really get done here unless there's either a well-financed and organized interest group involved, or there's a large grassroots movement driven by common grievances. We tend not to deal with tough problems until a crisis erupts. For example, we didn't really get on the stick about dealing with Islamic extremism until 9/11/01 happened, even though we were warned for years about it by experts on the subject.<BR/><BR/>There's a movie that was made in the U.S. in the 1980s I thought you might like, called "Stand And Deliver". It's based on a true story of a Latino engineer who comes to work at a public school as a math teacher in a predominantly Latino community, in the U.S., that is economically poor, and had poor teacher/student performance for years. He decides to try to give a gift to his students while he's there, of teaching them Calculus over the summer, so they can take the AP entrance exam, get into college, and train to be engineers, so they can get good jobs when they graduate. He runs into resistance, primarily from the very community he is trying to help. Parents tell their daughters, "Boys won't like you if you're smart." Staff at the school tell the teacher, "Don't give those kids false hope." There's a charge of institutional racism in the movie, but I always got a sense that it was more of a suspicion, out of frustration. It ends happily, despite the obstacles. It drives home the message that it's not just about school funding. You are depriving your students of a future if you don't have high expectations of them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com