Welcome To Esperanza Elementary Blog

I want to give you a special welcome to our Esperanza Elementary blog as we take our journey to found the school of our dreams. I invite you to visit us often and offer any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, questions, comments, etc. you might have.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Ganas

Yesterday I watched one of my favorite movies--Stand and Deliver. It was the umpteenth time I have seen it but once again it inspired me. Jaime Escalante is truly one of my mentors. One of my favorite quotes in the movie by Jaime Escalante: [to his students]

... There will be no free rides, no excuses. You already have two strikes against you: your name and your complexion. Because of those two strikes, there are some people in this world who will assume that you know less than you do...You're going to work harder here than you've ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you is *ganas.* *Desire.*

It was in this movie that I first heard the word "ganas," and it is now one of my favorite words. The best translation for it is a deep desire but even that doesn't adequately describe it.
Ganas is something we want our Esperanza scholars to have so we will have that word posted everywhere in the school as a reminder that they can achieve their dreams if they have the ganas.

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