Compare/Contrast Essay Re: Two Educators (Paper #2-Final Draft)

Selina Ayres                                                                                                                                Ayres1

Eng 101

Dr. Sonia Bergert

Paper #2

November 11 2013

Observing Education

       My two teachers I have selected for my paper both taught in two of the toughest and most impoverished schools in the United States, Jaime Escalante taught at Garfield High School in East L.A., and Kay Toliver, taught at East Harlem. They both taught at these schools by choice. Miss Toliver’s educational philosophy was simple: "All students can learn. It is a teacher's job to expand minds and take children from the known to unknown." Mr. Escalante would repeat very often, in his classroom, to his students, “expand the mind” “think, think”, he would also remind the staff frequently that the student will only raise to his expectations. They were dedicated, caring, compassionate, and had empathy for the situation that most of the students shared. All of the students lived in very impoverished neighborhoods infested with drugs and gangs. Both these teachers made a conscious decision to make a change in their community by teaching, and they made a significant difference, in many lives. The message they shared is; everybody can learn, everybody is smart. “You can do it” Mr. Escalante would say. These were two very inspiring stories.

     Mr. Escalante was born in Bolivia , both his parents were teachers. Escalante’s wife wanted to move to L.A. to be closer to her family, so they made the move in the early 1970’s. Previous to moving to L.A., Escalante spent the last 12 years teaching Calculus, however he did not have the credentials to teach Calculus here in the states. He was able to get a job as a basic math teacher. He immediately saw a need for his type of skills and dedication. His students are mostly Spanish speaking. This is an asset for Mr. Escalante, he too speaks Spanish and is able to reach his students through language and slang.

     Escalante becomes very creative in his teaching techniques. One day he came to school dressed as a chef with apples and a meat clever. He cuts the apples into ¼ sections and ½ sections, to teach the students about fractions. It worked, it got their attention and they soon enjoyed coming to his class because they were learning and he was someone who believed in them. Escalante used real life scenarios to solve math equations. For example, Poncho has 3 girlfriends, Javier has 2 more girlfriends than Poncho, and how many girlfriends does Javier have? He also got personally involved in their lives. My biggest admiration of Mr. Escalante was that he taught his students to plan for the future; he might quite possibly be the first in their lives to do this.

     After teaching at Garfield for a few years Mr. Esclante felt the students were not reaching their full potential, he suggested they add a Calculus class at the school, the staff thought he was crazy. He was able to convince them to let him teach a class, the classes would be before school, after school, weekends and summers. In 1982, Mr. Escalante was working a lot; in addition to his regular math class and his calculus class he also taught a class to people who could not speak English. It was during this time he suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital for a few weeks. He was supposed to take it easy and not return to work, but he could not let his students down. They had worked so hard and no one else at the school was qualified to teach Calculus, and they have the AP Calculus test just weeks away. So Mr. Escalante went back to school to help them prepare for the test. it paid off they all passed the test, with amazing scores.

      The Educational Testing Service found that the students from Garfield had made similar mistakes on the test and they scored exceptional high, so they decided to investigate the students for cheating. This was a very stressful time for the school staff, and students. Mr. Escalante went as far as to confront the investigators and accuse them of racism. To prove their innocence the students all agreed to take the test again. They had only two days to prepare, they studied through the night at Mr. Escalante's home. They all passed the test. He made a difference in so many lives. The class showed their gratitude by honoring their teacher with a plaque and some of the guys stole his car and fixed it up for him.

     Miss Toliver is a very vibrant, enthusiastic, teacher. It was her dream, since a small child, to teach. Her parents taught her that education was the key to a better life. She was born and raised in East Harlem and wanted to give back to her community, and she did. Most of her students were African-American or Hispanic. Toliver talks to her students about statistics, they are very aware of what their odds are, but know that Miss Toliver had the same statistics and here she is teaching Math. She feels them with hope and dreams. One of my favorite quotes in her article on the F.A.S.E. web-site, she states “Teachers are dream makers”

     Like Mr. Escalante, Miss Toliver is very hands on. Always inspiring her students to not only use their minds, but use their hands, their imagination and their words. It is not uncommon for Miss Toliver to show up wearing a wizard hat, a pumpkin head, or the raisin lady. Her students are required to keep a journal and write in it every day at the end of class. Math, language and communication go hand and hand, she teaches. The only complaint her students have is the homework, there is a lot of homework if you are in Miss Toliver’s class.

       My favorite thing about Miss Toliver, unlike Mr. Escalante, there is never a wrong answer in her class. Mr. Escalante would sometimes yell, "No, No, Think, Think". He would sometimes lose his patience's. In Miss Toliver's class if someone is being disruptive, she stops speaking, stares at them until everyone is quiet, or she stares up at the ceiling with her hands over her head, it works every time, they stop talking and pay attention. Miss Toliver never calls a parent to report that a child is doing poorly; she takes the time to call every parent and let them know how good their child is doing in class. Every student has her phone number. They can call if they need additional help with homework, she will help them over the phone or they can meet with her in the early morning before school or after school. She believes in her students, therefore they believe in themselves, every one of her students know they are smart because she tells them every day. They are told that they are students not hoodlums. “Math is all around you” she says this a lot, always has them looking for equations. Quite often takes them outdoors looking for equations. She encourages her students to try to answer the question, by stating, "even if you think you are wrong, give me answer".  One of her skills, she guides her students through their solutions.

       Miss Toliver is the recipient of many awards and also had a PBS special, Good Morning Miss Toliver. She now teaches other teachers her many talents and has created videos to teach others her teaching techniques. Here is a link to her video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQ0GpUGC0o
The F.A.S.E web-site:   http://www.fasenet.org/store/kay_toliver/

      In conclusion, it seems that teachers that are the most successful are the ones who give of themselves, their time, talents and skills. They are good listeners and know there are many ways to teach, and not all students learn the same way. If you get to know your student, you can learn what works and what does not work in regards to teaching. Mr. Escalante and Miss Toliver had a way of getting their students attention and keeping it. There was never a boring day in their classroom. Once a child see’s that they can do it, that is all that it takes. If you have been told you will never get it, you are not smart enough, you will start to believe it. Through positive reinforcement and a lot of creativity these two made learning fun.