The family of famed teacher Jaime Escalante, 79, announced that he passed away on March 30 at 2:27 pm. The cause of death was coronary and respiratory failure, precipitated by cancer.
He worked at a series of jobs as he studied, from a restaurant to a computer company, and in 1974 attained his goal. Arriving at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, he encountered a culture of low expectations, gang activity and administrative apathy.
His success in overcoming these odds and in enabling "unteachable" students to master advanced mathematics made him a national and international hero. The 1988 movie about his Garfield AP Calculus program, Stand and Deliver, remains one of the most popular and beloved films ever made about the teaching profession.
"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," said Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in Stand and Deliver.
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Ty Inc. became one of the world's largest manufacturers of stuffed animals thanks to the Beanie Babies craze in the 1990s.
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