Personal Factors--Message from Jaime Escalante

Jamie Escalante, the incredible math teacher who inspired the movie Stand and Deliver: "Children of the barrio have enormous obstacles to overcome to get an education...Minority students may be affected by these barriers, but they are not victims of them.  Students can learn to overcome any barrier they will every face."

Jaime Escalante's wisdom is a great introduction to the personal factors that we'll address for the next couple of weeks.

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.