Thoughts On Part II

While watching the second half of Stand and Deliver, I couldn't stop thinking about how far the students had come in just a year or so. They went from doing basic math to taking AP exams. It really shows that if you work hard and put your mind to something, you can achieve it. 18 students took the AP exams and 18 passed, which was unheard of! The ETS thought the students had cheated. Their reasoning was that they got more than the average amount correct and they finished with time left. They mentioned that in any other school it would have gotten unnoticed but because of what school they were in and what their ethnicities were, it was noticed. So racism was an underlying factor. That while situation reminded me of what Audre Lorde went through. She would go above and beyond what was wanted and was accused of cheating or was thought to be out of control. It's sad that both Mr. Escalante's students and Lorde's work couldn't be appreciated until after they were assumed to be cheating and then proven innocent.