A high school mathematics teacher, Jaime Escalante taught both in his native Bolivia and the U.S. as he spent most of his working career as an educator. He enjoyed remarkable success in his chosen vocation, and made a significant difference among his pupils. His efforts at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles were particularly inspiring, as he taught them calculus and had them clear college-level exams, even though they weren’t expected to. His feats there formed the basis of the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, one that catapulted his fame to a larger audience.Childhood and early lifeEscalante was the second eldest of five children born to Zenobio Escalante Rodriguez and Sara Gutierrez Valle, both teachers in a small village in Bolivia. Born in La Paz in 1930, Escalante learnt to read and write from his grandfather, a philosophy professor, and the basics of mathematics from his mother.Try this out: Questions for the questioners – a Teachers’ Day special quizWhen they moved from their rural village to La Paz, seeking better education, Escalante didn’t have the easiest of integrations. This was because he didn’t speak Spanish at the time, the language of instruction. “Little by little, as time went by, I went to the fifth grade of elementary education and I had a very good teacher and I learned the language, which gave me some confidence,” Escalante later recalled.Owing to his inability to sit still and his ability to constantly crack jokes, Escalante wasn’t the most popular of pupils in the classroom. Reports from the school were often bad, barring few teachers who saw he had talent and urged his mother to try bring out his whole potential.Teacher by chanceEven though he was drawn to physics and did his own experimentation at one point, he was aware that his family didn’t have the means to support such a dream. The death of his father meant that he had to find jobs and earn money as quickly as he could. Following his compulsory military service, Escalante made a sudden decision to enter a school where students were taught to enter the teaching profession.While he was unimpressed with their methods, one of the teachers was one who had taught Escalante at primary school. This teacher not only involved Escalante in experiments that he enjoyed, but also found him teaching positions when the country found itself in a political turmoil. Based on these early experiences, Escalante stated that “Early in my career I found that children learn faster when learning is fun, when it is a game and a challenge. From the beginning I cast the teacher in the role of “coach” and students in the role of the “team.” I made sure that my students knew that we were all working together on the same team.”