Teacher who inspired 'Stand and Deliver' dies

“Jaime exposed one of the most dangerous myths of our time – that inner city students can't be expected to perform at the highest levels,” Edward James Olmos said. “Because of him, that destructive idea has been shattered forever". (from here)

The math teacher at a tough East Los Angeles high school who inspired the movie "Stand and Deliver," has died. He was 79. A family friend says Jaime Escalante died Tuesday in Reno, Nev., where he was undergoing treatment for bladder cancer.

An immigrant from Bolivia, he transformed Garfield High School by motivating struggling students to tackle and excel at advanced math and science. The school had more Advanced Placement calculus students than all but three other public high schools in the country.

Edward James Olmos played Escalante in the film based on his story. Olmos says Escalante proved that inner city students can perform at the highest levels, and left an important legacy for American education.

Associated Press

A 1988 file shows Jaime Escalante teaching math at Garfield High School in Los Angeles.

From the Wikipedia entree on Mr. Escalante:

Determined to change the status quo, Escalante had to persuade the first few students who would listen to him that they could control their futures with the right education. He promised them that the jobs would be in engineering, electronics and computers but they would have to learn math to succeed. He said to his students "I'll teach you math and that's your language. With that you're going to make it. You're going to college and sit in the first row, not the back, because you're going to know more than anybody".

 

Welcome to Block 4!

Almost done guys! Congratulations to all those students who successfully navigated Biology I and Forensic Science I, and good luck in part two of both of those classes. 

As you should know by now, the point of this blog is to give you all some extracurricular information beyond what we talk about in class, to provide a a place to chat informally, and to offer you a chance for some extra credit.

To start off, it's easy peasy. Click on the small Comments link below (next to the email icon) and leave me a message telling me you were here (and who you are). 

For future assignments, I will have an article, an image, or a video for you to check out, and you can either leave a Comment, or email me a note at jgiacobbe_southpointe@cox.net and tell me what you think the article was about, and two important facts you learned from the article/image/video.

OK, so visit this page weekly for action, adventure, and really weird stuff! - JG

“I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing.
Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that.
So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep ya head up.... and handle it.” 

                   - Tupac Shakur

(from Brainmysteries.com) 


Study: Today's youth aren't ego-driven slackers after all!

A research paper co-authored by Brent Donnellan, associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University, contends that today's youth aren't the antisocial slackers that previous research has made them out to be. - Michigan State University

Today's youth are generally not the self-centered, antisocial slackers that previous research has made them out to be, according to a provocative new study co-authored by a Michigan State University psychologist.

In a scientific analysis of nearly a half-million high-school seniors spread over three decades, MSU's Brent Donnellan and Kali Trzesniewski of the University of Western Ontario argue teens today are no more egotistical - and just as happy and satisfied - as previous generations.

"We concluded that, more often than not, kids these days are about the same as they were back in the mid-1970s," said Donnellan, associate professor of psychology.

The study appears in the research journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Donnellan acknowledges that many people will be surprised by the findings, which refute previous studies classifying today's youth as selfish loafers with extremely high levels of self-esteem.

But while much previous research has relied on "convenience studies" of relatively small samples of young adults, Donnellan said, the current study analyzes the psychological profile data of 477,380 high school seniors from 1976 to 2006. The data comes from the University of Michigan's federally funded Monitoring the Future survey, which each year tracks the behaviors, attitudes and values of American students.
In other findings:

• Today's youth are more cynical and less trusting of institutions than previous generations. But Donnellan said this is generally true of the broader population.
• The current generation is less fearful of social problems such as race relations, hunger, poverty and energy shortages.
• Today's youth have higher educational expectations.

Ultimately, Donnellan said, it's common for older generations to paint youth in a negative light - as lazy and self-absorbed, for example - which can perpetuate stereotypes. It can be easy, he added, to forget what it's like to grow up.

"Kids today are like they were 30 years ago - they're trying to find their place in the world, they're trying to carve out an identity, and it can be difficult," Donnellan said. "But lots of research shows that the stereotypes of all groups are much more overdrawn than the reality."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the Michigan State University

OK, so none of you know who the hell Alex Chilton or the Box Tops were. Cool.

How about some Tubac? Now listen to the frakin' words, babies, and maybe you'll learn something from the master...JG

Alex Chilton, Influential Rock Singer, Dies at 59

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Published: March 19, 2010 - New York Times

Alex Chilton, a mercurial rock musician whose work ranged from the soul songs of the Box Tops to the multiple incarnations of his pop band Big Star, and who left a legacy more easily measured in artistic influence than in commercial impact, died on Wednesday in New Orleans, where he had been living since the 1980s. He was 59.

for the rest of the article, click here.

Chilton was one of those guys who everyone who knows anything about music admired, and many tried to emulate, but never quite made it to the "top of the pops." Still, he made some great tunes that will be listened to for decades to come - Peace Alex....jg

For a sample of his music, check this out:

A Hilarious Clip Shows Us How 'Twilight' Should Have Ended

Click here to view the video

By Matt Thompson
"Twilight" … in animation … with a different ending? Now that’s certainly original. You need to watch this clip that just went live on HowItShouldHaveEnded.com, a site that pokes fun at "questionable" movie endings by morphing them into a whole new storyline. The short starts off at the end of "Twilight" where Bella has been bitten and mangled by evil vampire James. She is dying, or well, uh, "turning into a vampire." All the Cullens are shown coupled around Bella in a reenactment, and it's more of a laughingstock than anything else.

The new ending has Bella turning into a bloodsucker after Edward ponders for a moment being with an old grandma while he still has the appearance of a young 17-year-old. Alice jokes she can see into the future and sees Jacob getting bigger with washboard abs, stealing Bella from Edward. With jokes from all the Cullen members, it’s very comical and makes light of one of the movie franchises that has just about everyone talking this week. (Two words: "New Moon.") HISHE, which recently partnered with Starz Digital Media, was launched in 2005 after the terrible ending of the "Flight of the Phoenix" remake coerced a few creative minds to redo the finale. Now, millions of streams later, we think it's about time they mocked the beloved vampire franchise!
What did you guys think of the clip? 

EXTRA CREDIT - OK Guys, this is your last change to get some extra credit before the block ends. Read one or more of the following articles, and write me some comments suggesting what the article is about. If you must, you can also email me your comments at jgiacobbe_southpointe@cox.net

Remember, next week is our last week of the block, so get your stuff together and get it to me yesterday. Your final exam will be Wednesday, March 10th. DON'T PANIC! (well, maybe, on the other hand, some of you should panic, and/or study harder...

Others May Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves, Study Finds

sciencedaily.com  —  Humans have long been advised to "know thyself," but new research suggests we may not know ourselves as well as we think we do. While individuals may be more accurate at assessing their own neurotic traits, such as anxiety, it seems friends, and even strangers, are often better barometers of traits such as intelligence, creativity and extroversion.

For the rest of the article, click here

Building a More Survivable ‘Future’ for the Army

wired.com  —  The Army once planned to build a family of networked, electric-powered combat vehicles that would use information — instead of inches of armor — to help them survive on the battlefield. Now, it looks like the service is completely rethinking its approach.

For the rest of the article, click here

An Infrared View of the Galaxy

 

nasa.gov — This sweeping panorama is the sharpest infrared picture ever made of the Galactic core. The center of our Milky Way galaxy reveals a new population of massive stars and new details in complex structures in the hot ionized gas swirling around the central 300 light-years.

For the whole galaxy, click here