Arnold Taps Math Teacher Jaime Escalante ('Stand and Deliver') as Education Advisor

LA Times and the National Journal (Registration Required) ^ | August 27, 2003 | Rob Miller and Danielle Jones

[prarie earth]

California Gubernatorial Candidate Arnold Schwartzenegger has tapped 72 year old Compton, Ca. Advanced Placement Calculus teacher Jamie Escalante to advise him on education issues.

Mr. Escalante is known for the 1987 film 'Stand and Deliver' which details his career teaching college math to East Los Angeles High School students.

[My2Cents]

Actually, it seems Arnold is also taking another page from the Reagan playbook.

This is an important point. Thanks for bringing it up. Being governor is more than simply having the right positions on the issues. That's important, of course, but what are the leadership qualities of the candidates running? This is my biggest concern about Tom McClintock. He's perfect on the fiscal issues, better than Arnold in my opinion, but he doesn't come across to me as a strong leader, a person with the management and leadership qualities necessary to execute the policies he proposes. Just as many conservatives are waiting on Arnold to more fully explain his positions, I'm waiting on McClintock to show he's got what it takes to be governor.

[nosofar]

You mean arnie tapped another person who believes reward comes from effort and that asking more than what is expected raises the bar for all?????

It depends on whether Arnold will actually listen to him or if it's just a bone thrown to the conservative wing of the GOP. Also, what Escalante's views are now, not when the movie was made. I'm sure you know more about that than I do. I suspect at least part of it has to do with the Latino vote and countering Bustamante. I'm still hoping Arnold is more socially conservative (at least less liberal) than he comes across.

[Teacher317]

Simply the fact that he is a movie star, and seems to be picking advisors who are actors or the subjects of movies, makes one of his weakest points (that he is a celebrity, and not a typical *spit* politician) and exacerbates it. It also paints Arnold as someone who lives in the movies rather than in reality. Other pols have had celebrity advisors, but certainly not to the same percentages or numbers as Arnold has thus far.

(and you can't seriously think that Rob Lowe is the top in his field, or has led an inspirational life)

[b9]

>>> You're exactly right on that Reagan quote. He had it on a small plaque on his desk in the Oval Office. <<<

Thanks!
It's a great thought, whether raising a country, a state or a family.

[DoctorZIn]

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[LaraCroft]

I guess this means you think Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Churchill are movie stars because someone made a movie about them?

[LaraCroft]

Oh my.. you're a teacher?

And you don't know who Jamie Escalante is? You must be a California teacher.

Joking, kinda. Surely you didn't think Mr. Escalante is an actor though?

[Teacher317]

Nope, I know the movie well. However, my point remains that the public will see the Schwarzenegger staff as a collection of movies... either actors or subjects of movies.

And as for Gandhi, MLK, and Churchill, they were not memorialized by Hollywood films in their lifetimes. Sheeple can disassociate the two. But when the protagonists are still alive, the sheeple identify more with the movie version than the actual person. Few could pick Erin Brockovich, the Apollo astronauts, or Jaime Esalante out of a line-up, but they can quote lines from their movies... and virtually all they know about those people is what they learned from those movies.

Also, taking out Gandhi, I don't recall any major motion picture dedicated the lives of the other two, even posthumously.

(Finally, I'm not teaching anymore... I'm in Law School... on the other side of the desk! Yikes!)

[Teacher317]

Just to reinforce my point, look at the title of this thread. The movie title is added virtually out of necessity, so that the majority of readers (FReepers, even!) would be able to identify with the thread. Most cannot separate the two, and Arnold is picking advisors who are almost all similarly identified. That may not be a distinguishing characteristic that he would want people to use to label his campaign. It reduces him to a Hollywood figurehead rather than a statesman, IMHO.

[BibChr]

Isn't it hilarious to see someone like Ben Stein, dandy of MTV, suddenly possessed of such lofty moral principles? I wonder when that happened?

Dan

[LaraCroft]

Honestly, I don't care what the majority of people 'think' ( I use that word loosely ).

I want the education system reformed and I suspect we will have to do it with the NEA at gunpoint. And so be it.

Sorry to hear about your career change. LOL I mean of course, best wishes!

[b9]

Have you read Ben Stein's book, "How to Ruin Your Life?"

[BibChr]

Have you read Ben Stein's book, "How to Ruin Your Life?"

My first reaction is to crack up and say, "Never needed a book for that one!"

No; I used to look at his self-indulgent, self-referential, rambling columns in Human Events or National Review (I forget which), and wonder what in the world the editors thought he was contributing. He was one of the reasons I stopped bothering with the magazine in question.

Dan

[b9]

You might be surprised. It's actually kind of useful.

[HamiltonJay]

Ahnold is a self made millionaire, he turned bodybuilding into a serious money maker... made a successful business in real estate AND became a famous action star. I fail to understand why the anti-ahnold folks just keep trying to portray him as some leftist limosine liberal.

This is a first generation immigrant who has busted his butt and enjoyed the rewards for and of the american dream. To try to spin him into some silver spoon handed to him liberal who will destroy the world is just factually nonsense.

This guy epitomizes what America offers, and believe me he knows and respects that far more than most native borns IMHO.

He may have tapped this guy for Latino sympathy, he may have tapped him for far right support, or he may have tapped him because he felt the guy would be a good man for the job... I don't agree with Ahnold on all his stands particularly in the realm of social issues, however to try to spin this guy as a RINO or Liberal is a stretch and a half.