The movie talked about a new teacher, Mr. Escalante at Garfield High School, a public school in LA notorious for its rebellious students and lousy academics, who was hired to teach computer science but became a math teacher instead (because of the school's inability to provide computers). His students mostly came from poor Hispanic background and only had maths level equaled to that of the seventh graders. But Escalante was determined to change the situation; he used different methods to get students interested in maths, and when his students became stronger in the subject, he mentioned that he wanted to teach AP Calculus. This was objected to by the school chairman, but he still organized the top students from his maths class and taught them calculus from Monday to Saturday, all day long during summer. Eventually his students all passed the AP exam with less than 4 mistakes in average and still had time to spare during the test, which gave ETS a reason (but no evidence) to doubt that the students were cheating. While Mr. Escalante was very furious about the baseless accusation of the administration board of the testing center, the students were willing to take the test again with only one day to study, and again, all of them passed the test. 

   The movie was based on a true story, with several details being exaggerated. For example, a high school student cannot go from now knowing fractions to suddenly being able to handle calculus in a year; nevertheless, the movie shows us what a positive influence, both in academics and in life, a good teacher could plant in students. 

   I Googled the movie, and found out that in real life, Escalante had not received the credits he should have had after his success. Jealousy had forced him to resign and leave Garfield High School. 

   I have watched several movies alike that all talk about how the lives of the students have been changed after the appearance of the teacher who is patient and understanding. Death Poets Society to be one of them, but the ending is sadder (and inevitable, to some extent), with one student committing a suicide and the teacher forced to leave the school. In another movie, The Chorus, the teacher also leaves the school instead. It seems like the system under which one of the most important part of social functioning— education— is not exactly the optimal place for talented, creative, and enthusiastic teachers to thrive; on the very opposite, from all the movies I've watched, books I've read, and my personal experience, it is even probable to come to the conclusion that not the teachers who know how to teach, but the teachers who know how to teach according to tradition, can survive the system and make it to the top. There are many teachers in my previous school whom I appreciate from both academic and living point of view, but they don't seem to be dealing with the authority comfortably, or in other phrasing, not as successfully as those who can't teach as well as them. People assume that the higher position a teacher is in, the better he or she teachers; but to some extent it seems to be the other way round. 

   I have no knowledge in the operation of a school, not to mention the educational system from the teachers' perspective, so that I do not really have the right to criticize the way it works; but at least I have sensed that it has holes in that, and a lot of good teachers have been swollen by those holes and are denied of the opportunity to earn the credits they deserve. How to fix those holes remain a question for whoever makes the rules; after all, who I am to dictate if it is good or bad, right or wrong?

   I can only hope that teachers like Mr.Escalante can have the same amount of luck that he has (before he left the school, that is) to have the chance to carry out their own ideas, and to change the lives of their students.